
Class _Js_&AA 
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Prize Gardenin 





HOW TO DERIVE 






PROFIT 
PLEASURE 
H EALTH 






FROM THE GARDEN 





Actual Experience 

of the 

Successful Prize Winners 

in the 

American 

Agriculturist 

Garden Contest 

FULLY ILLUSTRATED FROM 

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS 

AND DRAWINGS' 



G. 



Compiled by 

BURNAP 



FISKE 



Author of 
Part II, The New Rhubarb Culture. 
Formerly agricultural editor of the Massachu- 
setts Pioughman and assistant agricultural 
editor of the American Agriculturist Weeklies. 



New York 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 

1901 






■ ' , • 



The library of 

©ONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

NOV, 16 1901 

Copyright entry 

YWo. it -i lot 

CLASS GLSXXc No, 



S-- L ■ « ■ ■ 



copy a. 



COPYRIGHTED I9OI 

by 
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY. 



All Rights Reserved. 









• •« • • 



• . • • .« 



A 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 



CHAPTER I 

STORY OF THE CONTEST 

History, rules, entries, reports and results. 

CHAPTER II 

THE GRAND PRIZE GARDEN 

Mr. Morse's story— Sketch of J. H. Morse— His methods for 
special crops — Prize garden queries. 

CHAPTER III 

GARDENING FOR PROFIT 

Good living from a garden — Five acres enough — A cucumber 
experiment— Money in berries — Mr. Wright's vineyard — 
Money in a Minnesota garden — A twenty-acre garden. 

CHAPTER IV 

GOOD FARM GARDENS 

A luxuriant Iowa garden— Mr. Campbell's story— The Wood- 
ruff prize garden — A business-like gardener — A busy 
farmer's garden. 

CHAPTER V 

THE HOME ACRE 

A quality garden— In the semi-arid district— A luxuriant home 
garden — A farm garden patch — Small gardens. 

CHAPTER VI 

ON HIGH-PRICED LAND 

A city man's garden— Good seeds and fertilizers— Careful 
planning— Winner of the first prize — Mr. Higley's way. 



VI CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VII. 

SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY 

A profitable small garden — Movable hotbeds — One of the best 
suburban gardens — Small town gardens — A squash crop 
under difficulty. 

CHAPTER VIII 

FERTILIZER GARDENS 

The prize fertilizer garden — Mr. Flagg's garden journal — 
Prize vegetables — A prime garden on chemicals — Fer- 
tilizer lavishly applied. 

CHAPTER IX 

PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 

A smart woman's success — A woman's pastime — A good 
home garden — Mrs. Ludwig's success — Mrs. Bale's 
diary — A profitable small garden — A model account — A 
nice income — Successful gardening — A productive south- 
ern garden — Perseverance under difficulty. 

CHAPTER X 

YOUNG HORTICULTURISTS 

Nature's school — One of the smaller gardens — An enterpris- 
ing youth — A boy gardener. 

CHAPTER XI 

GARDEN IRRIGATION 

Water saved the garden — In the lower San Gabriel valley — In 
the mountain section— Taught by practice — A Kansas 
garden — Three acres in Colorado. 

CHAPTER XII 

IRRIGATION IN THE EAST 

Water, soluble fertilizers and irrigation — Watering a city lot — 
Another Jersey water garden. 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER XIII 

EXPERIMENTAL GARDENING 

Thorough methods— A melon garden— Testing the soil— Some 
novel features — An interesting experiment — A beginner's 
success — Selling produce to Indians — High feeding for 
plants — Saving seeds — A born horticulturist. 

CHAPTER XIV 

METHODS UNDER GLASS 

A cheap forcing house— The hotbed— A quick way— Mr. Kin- 
ney's methods— Management of hotbeds— Useful details- 
Forcing cucumbers and tomatoes— Forcing lettuce— Coal 
the best heat — Small frames. 

CHAPTER XV 

SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 

The potato field — Onions— Tomato culture— Melons— One 
woman's way— Peas— Early cucumbers— Celery— Large, 
well filled corn— Spring lettuce— Covering spinai .—Egg 
plant— Ginseng. toS 

CHAPTER XVI 

PRIZE FLOWERS AND FRUIT 

Growing sweet peas— Culture of begonias— Dahlias— The 
water lily pond — Fruit in prize gardens. 

CHAPTER XVII 

LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 

Cost and value of the garden— Profits of small market gar- 
dens—How to make the garden pay— What should a 
garden contain — Growing and showing vegetables — Early 
vegetables— Some good vegetables not generally grown— A 
practical farm garden— Marketing. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 

Replies from prize winners— Best size for garden— Causes of 
failure— Best vegetables and flowers— Best implements— 



Vlll CONTENTS 

Insect killers — Second crops — Fighting weeds — Prize gar- 
den experience. 

CHAPTER XIX 

PRIZE PICKINGS 

Garden bookkeeping — Working the soil — Cultivation and weed- 
ing — Special implements — Fighting insects — Garden de- 
vices — Fertilizers — Solid comfort — The family garden. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Sweet Peas and "Rosebuds" in the Grand Prize Garden — 

Frontispiece 

Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Morse 6 

Plowing in the Grand Prize Garden 8 

Garden Plots and Home Grounds of the Grand Prize 

Winner n 

Plots in the Prize Garden 13 

Some Produce of the Grand Prize Garden ... 15 

Manure Spread After a March Snowstorm ... 24 

The Early Hotbed 28 

Mr. Wright's Five-Acre Market Garden . . 30 

Cucumber Vines Dusted with Lime, and Box Frames . 32 

A Thrifty Market Garden 38 

Working a New York Truck Patch ..... 42 

A York State Truck Patch in July . . 45 

Garden of G. W. F. Campbell 53 

Onions for Exhibit . . .' ■ 54 

Some of Mr. Widmer's Vegetables 59 

Mr. and Mrs. Dimock 64 

L. E. Dimock's Garden Ready for Seed .... 66 

Mr. Dimock's Garden in Midseason 68 

Vegetable Exhibit from Mr. Dimock's Garden ... 70 

A. T. Giauque's Good Garden ...... ^ 72 

A Garden in Long Rows ....... 73 

A Garden Site in the Minnesota Forest . ... 75 

Mr. Tye's Currant Bushes and Late Turnips ... 76 

Some of Mr. Tye's Crops and Tools 77 

A Well-Arranged House Lot 79 

How Mr. Hauck's Garden Is Arranged and Planted . 82 

Some July Prize Vegetables 83 

Garden Arrangement of a City Back Yard .... 85 

Celery Boarded Ready for Bleaching 91 



X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Grapevine with Bags on Fruit 92 

Typical Landscape of Northern New Jersey ... 93 

F. J. Bell's Garden Plot 96 

Residence of F. J. Bell 99 

Residence of R. L. Porter 101 

Edward R. Flagg 104 

On Culture and Chemicals 109 

Farm and Garden of J. G. Lyman 113 

Mrs. W. D. Goss 115 

Mrs. Dole's Garden in August 122 

Mrs. L. A. Ludwig . 127 

Garden of Amelia C. Guild in July. Camden Mts. in 

Background 133 

Working Force of A. C. Guild's Garden, with July Produce 135 

A New York Woman's Garden 137 

Mrs. Calkins Picking Berries for Supper .... 139 

Home of Mrs. J. W. Bryan 141 

George Osborne's Home Market 144 

Peppers Six Inches Long Grown by Oscar Roberts . . 146 

A Large Exhibit by a Small Gardener .... 149 

Walter R. Palmer 150 

The Site of an Irrigated Garden 153 

A Nebraska Garden Spot Before Irrigation . . . 154 

Method of Irrigating Mr. Brickey's Garden . . . 156 

Irrigating Egg Plants 161 

Mr. Matteson's Ditch and Cross Furrows .... 164 

Plot of S. W. Damon's Watered Garden .... 166 

Fruit Trees in the Garden 170 

Mr. Reynolds's Garden Plot 171 

Irrigation Plan of J. B. Reynolds's Garden . . .172 

Inside Plant for Garden Irrigation 177 

Celery, Denim Hose Between Rows 179 

Irrigating Celery 181 

Ready for Business 187 

A Woman's Luxuriant Garden 190 

Mrs. Alice C. Strader 191 

A Farmer's Greenhouse 196 

Hotbeds and Cold Frames 203 

Mr. G. J. Townsend, His Workshop and Cold Frames . 205 

Harvesting Onions 215 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XI 



A New England Onion Crop 

Prize Onions 

Picking Tomatoes 

Mr. Edge's Tomato Support 

Flower Garden of R. N. Lewis, Brigntside 

Peach Trees in an Arkansas Garden . 

Prolific Currants ..... 

Ready for the Spring Campaign . 

November Pickings from a Woman's Gar 

Homestead of a New York State Winner 

A Convenient Garden Summary . 

Using a Horse Hoe as a Hand Cultivator i 

A Homemade Marker . 

Protection from Cutworms . 

A Minnesota Gardener's Device . 

A Handy Weeder .... 

Stcne Boat and Vine Support 

P.ant Boxes 

Picking Peas for Dinner 

Shady Lawn of a Prosperous Garden 

Finis ...... 

L. C. and Fred P. Wright . 
Mr. and Mrs. A. T. Giauque 
Brainard S. Higley 



den 



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New York 



arsnip Bed 



216 
217 
219 
222 
238 

243 
244 
270 
272 

274 
279 
284 
286 
286 
287 
288 
290 
292 
296 
298 
300 
301 
302 
303 



INTRODUCTION 



The collected and condensed experience of the win- 
ners in the Garden Contest is believed to be of unique 
value because of the skill and prominence of the narra- 
tors and the completeness of description encouraged 
by the nature of the contest. Full details of crop 
methods are almost proverbially hard to get from 
successful gardeners, who may often regard such 
information as a kind of trade secreet. Here, on the 
contrary, the hope of winning prominence and a large 
money reward has brought out such a wealth of fact 
and detail that the most rigorous condensation and 
selection was needed, and only the most striking and 
essential parts could be quoted or even summarized, 
although it is believed that all points of practical and 
permanent value have been retained. 

The greater part of Chapters I, II and XVII, and 
other descriptive articles, were originally prepared for 
the American Agriculturist weeklies by Mr. E. C. 
Powell, one of the judges of the contest. 

The accounts as originally submitted have been 
amplified and brought to date when necessary, by 
further correspondence with prize winners. 

There were five thousand entries, about five hun- 
dred complete accounts and one hundred prize winners. 
From the leading accounts, the aim is to present a total 
of selected experience with gardens of all sizes, from 
one thousand square feet to many acres in extent, in 
different sections of the continent and under numerous 



INTRODUCTION XIV 

variations of soil, climate, altitude and method of 
arrangement. 

Although nearly all the prize winners were garden 
experts, yet some excelled in special directions and 
naturally emphasized their specialties in the accounts, 
thus giving far more helpful treatment of the various 
topics than could be accorded by any one expert. 
Clearness, completeness and accuracy were the essen- 
tial requirements, and contestants were encouraged to 
relate all important details and to tell the whole story, 
some keeping a daily memorandum as a basis for the 
description and bookkeeping record. Many submitted 
charts, photographs and drawings, making their narra- 
tive still clearer. The intelligence and progressiveness 
of the growers is apparent at first glance. Each man 
has definite ideas of his own, and these ideas he is test- 
ing by successful garden practice. The methods differ : 
many men ; many minds. Each has studied out his own 
problem in his own way. The very difference in the 
conditions and methods constitutes the particular value 
of the accounts, since readers everywhere will find that 
some at least of the descriptions are particularly 
adapted to their needs. 

Most important of all, the accounts are every one 
from actual experience ; not a line but is based on the 
work of the season, and the result is a mine and 
treasure-house of garden practice. In effect every 
writer had his notebook strapped to his hoe-handle, 
and the stories savor of the fresh-turned soil and the 
laden produce baskets. 



CHAPTER I 

STORY OF THE CONTEST 

Prizes aggregating two thousand five hundred 
dollars were offered for the best garden accounts for 
the season of 1899. This contest was inaugurated by 
the American Agriculturist weeklies, Orange Judd 
Farmer of Chicago for the west, American Agricul- 
turst of New York for the middle and southern states, 
The New England Homestead of Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts, for the east. 

These prizes were offered not for the story of 
biggest profits or for fancy results, but, in the language 
of the rules, " to the records and reports which show 
most clearly and accurately the methods pursued, and 
the receipts and expenses of the garden, irrespective 
of whether it shows a profit or a loss." 

The Orange Judd Company, publishers of the great 
weeklies before mentioned, contributed two hundred 
and fifty dollars in cash and defrayed all expenses of 
the contest. Other prizes in cash and goods were the 
donations of various dealers and producers of agricul- 
tural supplies. Some were conditioned on the use of 
the donors' seeds, fertilizers or implements, which fact 
will account for their occasional mention in narratives 
of contestants. 

The rules allowed a garden of any size above one 
thousand square feet, and plots varied from the lowest 
limit up to twenty acres. There were few, however, 
above four or five acres. The garden might be in one 
piece or divided in several plots ; most of them were 
in one field. Contestants were required to state exact 



2 PRIZE GARDENING 

area and to list and value all tools and supplies, all 
accounts to be kept in a record book of convenient size. 
The less important details were left to individual 
judgment. 

Every one of the five hundred contestants whose 
reports were received had his or her own method of 
keeping the record and making out the report. Some 
were brief, giving only the barest summary of the work 
done, methods employed, expenses, receipts and prod- 
ucts, while others were very elaborate and covered two 
or three hundred pages of manuscript or typewritten 
copy and were fully illustrated with photographs, 
sketches and drawings. Some were ornately bound. 
Nearly all grasped the idea to give a report that would 
bring out the actual product and returns from the 
garden, receipts and expenses and methods pursued. 
The ages of contestants ranged between ten and ninety 
years. Some of the winners were women, and their 
experience suggests anew the idea of the lighter out- 
door pursuits for the weaker sex. Some of them did 
all the work, light or heavy. Others secured help from 
the men folk for such work as plowing and carting. 
Increased health and strength were among the price- 
less benefits secured, although women's gardens did 
not compare unfavorably for general good results with 
those worked by man power. 

Close to five thousand people in all parts of the 
country gave notice of their intention to compete, and 
five hundred and fifteen actually sent in reports of the 
season's work. Many who did not officially enter the 
contest were encouraged to keep better gardens. Prob- 
ably at least five thousand well-kept gardens in nearly 
as many towns were due to this contest — each one an 
object lesson to many other people. A good garden 
in a neighborhood is like seed sown upon good ground 
— it wakes up the neighbors to follow suit and try a 



STORY OF THE CONTEST 3 

garden for themselves. Thus the garden contest has 
had a far-reaching influence and the good effect will 
continue in ever-widening circles for years to come. 

The number of entries and number of reports 
received are shown in the annexed table. The unprec- 
edented drouth of 1899 was so widespread and cut 
short so many gardens that many owners became dis- 
couraged and failed to continue the record throughout 
the season and to send in their reports. The percent- 
age of completed returns was, however, very large for 
a contest of this kind, and testifies to an extraordinary 
interest. 



Reports No. 
received ent'r'd 



Reports No. 
received ent'r'd 



Maine 11 

New Hampshire.... 13 

Vermont 17 

Massachusetts 75 

Rhode Island 2 

Connecticut 39 

New York 81 

New Jersey 11 

Pennsylvania 17 

Delaware 2 

Maryland 3 

Virginia 2 

North Carolina 1 

South Carolina 1 

Georgia 3 

Florida 2 

Ohio 13 

West Virginia 1 

Kentucky 2 

Tennessee 7 

Mississippi 4 

Alabama 1 

Michigan 11 

Indiana 6 

Wisconsin 21 

Illinois 25 

Minnesota 23 

Iowa 17 



109 Missouri 9 85 

131 Arkansas.... 2 21 

165 Louisiana 2 14 

728 North Dakota 1 5 

19 South Dakota 1 12 

387 Nebraska 19 172 

819 Kansas 5 43 

127 Oklahoma 2 18 

174 Indian Territory.... 1 4 

19 Texas 5 48 

36 Montana 1 5 

28 Wyoming 1 7 

9 Colorado 23 226 

14 New Mexico 1 9 

27 Idaho o 2 18 

22 Utah 2 10 

148 Arizona 1 8 

11 Washington 6 58 

27 Oregon 4 41 

86 Nevada 1 3 

42 California 7 62 

8 Ontario 2 21 

106 Manitoba 3 34 

51 British Columbia... 3 37 

198 Nova Scotia 2 15 

245 

221 Total 515 4997 

163 



4 PRIZE GARDENING 

One novel feature of the contest was the emphasis 
placed upon the story of the work ; not upon the yield 
or profit of the garden. The management wisely pre- 
ferred to secure practical and helpful accounts clearly 
and attractively presented, rather than to encourage 
stories of great returns, with the accompanying possi- 
bility of exaggeration, and results which at best are 
not more helpful to the average grower than are the 
monstrous and pampered specimens of fruit and vege- 
tables so often awarded premiums at the agricultural 
fairs ; the trouble and expense in such cases are out 
of the question for the practical gardener. The 
methods described in the prize accounts are for the 
most part those which anybody can follow with profit 
under similar conditions. 

As might be expected, a majority of the best 
accounts were evidently by the best gardeners ; men 
and women of good general ability, having a thorough 
understanding of the best methods and being able 
therefore to present them clearly. Their work, both 
on paper and on soil, showed to good advantage. 
Some, evidently highly skilled and intelligent garden- 
ers, were unfortunate in various ways, but in most 
cases good accounts, good methods and good gardens 
went together. Thus, although the prize accounts, if 
sufficiently good, might have described gardens which 
failed to pay, the fact was otherwise, as a general rule, 
and despite a drouthy season, most of the winners 
obtained large and valuable crops. 



CHAPTER II 

THE GRAND PRIZE GARDEN 

The garden of J. E. Morse, who won the grand 
prize, is located within the city limits of Detroit, Mich- 
igan. The ground has been devoted to nursery pur- 
poses for thirty years, and is so occupied that separate 
plots were used for the garden. Plot No. i has a south- 
ern slope with a light sandy soil. A heavy application 
of manure was made in 1898 and five tons were applied 
March 14. It was plowed April 18 and cultivated 
with twelve-tooth cultivator and pulverizer attachment, 
rolled and cultivated again and planted to crops as 
shown by diagram on a later page. It was cultivated 
April 28 with the double wheel hoe, again on May 13 
and frequently thereafter throughout the season. The 
tomato plants, which had previously been sown in the 
hotbed, were transplanted May 4, seventeen of them 
being set direct in the ground and the rest potted and 
planted out three weeks later. The potted plants did 
much better and received no check at the final trans- 
planting to open ground. Gradus and Duke of Albany 
peas rotted badly and were replanted May 5. This 
shows the necessity of using the round, smooth varie- 
ties for early sowing. 

Lettuce had been sown in the hotbed April 1, 
transplanted to cold frames the 18th and every alter- 
nate row thinned and planted in open ground May 4, 
to be followed by lima beans when the crop was har- 
vested. Burpee's All Head Early cabbage was planted 
out May 6. Salt was used to keep off green worms 



6 PRIZE GARDENING 

and was of assistance in heading- and hardening up 
the cabbage. The first heads were ready for use July 
9. Five rows of Sheffield sugar corn were planted 
April 20 with sprouted seed. This insured planting 
only good seed, avoided danger of rotting and hastened 
maturity several days, so that the first picking was 
made July 9, or in eighty-one days, and continued until 
August 19. Some of the potatoes were placed in a 
box in the house and sprouted and all were planted in 
the ground May 4. The sprouted potatoes made a 




MR. AND MRS. J. E. MORSE 



decided gain and were ready for market from a week 
to ten days earlier and brought fifteen to twenty cents 
more per bushel. 

Plot No. 2 has a westerly slope with soil varying 
from light sand to heavy sandy loam. Four tons of 
manure were applied, and on May 10 it was plowed 
and worked in the same manner as the other plot and 
again cultivated in sections as the various crops were 



THE GRAND PRIZE GARDEN 7 

planted. Two rows of bush beans were planted the 
next day. The wheel hoe with plows set together was 
run, making a shallow drill. The beans were dropped 
three inches apart, the plows were then reversed and 
set apart and run astride the row, turning the soil back 
into the trench. The wheel hoe and cultivator was 
used May 22 and 29 and June 12. For the rust the 
vines were sprayed with saltpeter and water in the 
proportion of one ounce to one gallon and with very 
satisfactory results. Early beets had been sown in the 
hotbed April 18 and were transplanted to open ground 
April 15, the tops being clipped at the same time. 
There was no need of thinning and the results of trans- 
planting were satisfactory, as they were ready for the 
table and bunching July 1. 

In transplanting the tomatoes from the hotbed, 
a mixture of soil and Jadoo fiber was used in the pots 
and a fine root growth obtained. In setting out, holes 
were made with a spade three by three feet apart for 
the Fordhook Fancy and five by six feet for Pon- 
derosa. The plants were removed from the pots, set 
an inch or two below the surface and a dipper of water 
was poured around each before drawing up the fresh 
earth. Plants thus treated did not wilt any in the 
hottest sun and continued growing without a check. 
The following brief summary tells all about the tomato 
crop and shows the method which was used in the 
report with several other of the more important crops : 

RECEIPTS 

July — 28 qts at 5c $1.40 

Aug— 21 bu at 55c. 11.55 

Sept — 60 bu at 31c 18.60 

Oct — 4 bu at 75c 3.00 

$34-55 




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THE GRAND PRIZE GARDEN 9 

EXPENSES 

Rent of land $ .50 

Manure 80 

Plowing and fitting 1.20 

Plants 7-50 

betting and resetting. 1.05 

10 lbs nitrate of soaa at 3 i-2c 35 

5 lbs Jadoo fiber at 3c 15 

Cultivation and hoeing 75 

Picking 3-00 

Marketing 3-3Q 

$19.20 
Balance profit $15-35 

Hubbard squashes were grown exclusively in 
Plot No. 3, which is a sandy knoll with a southern 
slope. The preparation of the ground was similar to 
that of the other plots. On June 10 it was planted. 
The hills were made six by six feet by mixing a shovel- 
ful of manure with the soil and covering with earth 
one inch deep. 

Late cabbage was planted on Plot No. 4 (not 
shown), which was four by ten rods, with an easterly 
slope and heavy sandy soil. In previous years serious 
trouble with club root had been experienced and a test 
with litmus paper showed the soil to be very sour. Air 
slaked lime, at the rate of one ton per acre, was sown 
broadcast and harrowed in after applying four tons 
of manure. Only five and five-tenths per cent of the 
plants showed club root, while the previous crop grown 
in 1896 was entirely abandoned on account of this 
trouble. 

Late in the fall some rhubarb roots were dug, left 
on the ground to freeze and planted in a bed made on 
the cellar floor January 18. They were screened off 
with an old carpet curtain and a common lamp and 
lantern with darkened chimneys used to give the 
required heat. The bed was ready to cut February 



10 PRIZE GARDENING 

25 and remained in bearing some time. From ten 
roots ten and one-third dozen bunches (thirty-six stalks 
to the bunch) were cut, which were worth fifty cents 
per dozen. 

Burpee's seeds, in mostly five and ten-cent packets, 
were used. A peck of Burpee's Extra Early potatoes 
worth one dollar, one hundred and twenty cabbage 
plants at sixty cents, five hundred tomato plants at 
seven dollars and fifty cents and ten rhubarb roots at 
one dollar, with the rest of the seeds, footed up to thir- 
teen dollars and eighty-five cents. The accompanying 
summaries explain themselves and show that this gar- 
den of three-fourths of an acre returned a net profit of 
ninety-two dollars and forty-six cents. 

The Prize Winner and His Family. — Mr. Morse 
was born near Pontiac, Michigan, of parentage well 
tinctured with Revolutionary blood. He was the 
youngest of a family of three, and when eleven years 
old began to study the problem of self-support. At 
the age of seventeen he went to the front as a private, 
and was mustered out seven months later at the close 
of the Civil war, leaving his regiment as acting orderly 
sergeant. Returning home, rapidly changing circum- 
stances soon drew him into music teaching and gospel 
work, which extended over considerable portions of 
Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, during 
which time he married a woman whose girlhood was 
passed upon a farm. They have two little girls, 
Gladys and Helen, aged six and four years. Subse- 
quently he took up the management of a newspaper, 
which broke him down in health and pocket. His 
early training in farming and fruit growing, supple- 
mented by a careful study of methods, now came in 
play, and in the spring of 1896 he took charge of an 
old nursery, which offered a home, with fruit, flowers, 
etc. He says : 




s#/?t/&a£-/?X 








1 





12 PRIZE GARDENING 

"We were empty-handed on taking- possession of 
the place ; our entire assets consisted of a limited 
amount of household furniture, one hoe, one shovel, 
two forks, a buggy and horse with a chattel mortgage 
blanket upon it, and two thousand dollars invested in 
baby girl securities. With no tools but our hands the 
work was laborious. Our seed was purchased on 
short time and our first cash investment was a 
year's subscription to an agricultural paper. Crops 
soon gladdened our eyes. A Jersey cow was soon 
purchased, then pigs and chickens, which also 
proved a source of revenue. Fruit, flowers and vege- 
tables were carefully prepared for market and sold 
at fancy prices as soon as matured. Within five 
months the last payment was made on the cow and 
the chattel mortgage, and a goodly supply of fruit, 
vegetables and potatoes stored away for winter's use. 
During these years a willing and helpful wife has ren- 
dered valuable aid in all ways. Tribute has been laid 
on every help within our reach, on agricultural papers, 
of which we have four weeklies and several monthlies, 
books, bulletins, attendance upon farmers' institutes, 
etc. Our work has been the breeding up and improve- 
ment of different fruits, flowers and vegetables. Quite 
a good deal of writing has been done for agricultural 
papers by both of us. Our dark forcing experiments 
are confined to the winter months and are opening up 
new fields of profit." 

In regard to the tools used, Mr. Morse says: 
" Aside from the plowing and rolling of the ground, 
no implements outside the Planet Jr family were used. 
Even the hand hoe was almost unthought of and very 
little needed. The double wheel hoe with all attach- 
ments seems capable of more varied uses than any 
other implement with which I am acquainted. The 
multitude of uses for which so many of the implements 



THE GRAND PRIZE GARDEN 



J 3 



can be utilized is their chief recommendation. With 
the small plots we were compelled to use, horse culti- 
vation was expensive, both as to time and plants 
destroyed ; and working by hand would have eaten the 
crops before harvested." 





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CABBAGE. 


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TOMATOES 




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PLOT NO. I IN DETAIL 



FLOTS NOS. 2 AND 3 IN DETAIL 



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PLOTS IN THE PRIZE GARDEN 



14 PRIZE GARDENING 



TOOLS USED IN PRIZE GARDEN 

Plow $6.50 

Planet Jr wheel hoe 6.00 

Planet Jr hill and drill seeder 7.00 

12-tooth cultivator 8.00 

Roller 3.50 

Wheelbarrow 1.00 

Spade 75 

Shovel 60 

Hoe 40 

Garden line. 15 

Garden rake 35 

Sprayer j 5.00 

Horse and wagon 75-00 

Hotbeds 10.40 

350 flower pots 7.00 



$131.65 

FERTILIZER USED 

14 tons barnyard manure $7.00 

1 -4 ton lime 1 .45 

12 lbs nitrate of soda 36 

1 lb saltpeter 20 

10 lbs Jadoo fiber 30 

1 lb sulphur 10 

1 lb tobacco dust 03 

12 gals bordeaux mixture 18 

$9.62 

PROCEEDS FROM GARDEN 

Mar — 10 1-3 doz rhubarb $5.17 

Apr — 32 bchs radishes 64 

May — 20 lbs lettuce 2.00 

30 doz tomato plants 6.00 

8 doz cabbage plants 1.20 

120 cabbage plants 60 

3 bu lettuce 1.50 

June — 500 tomato plants 7.50 

6 bu lettuce 2.25 

4 lbs lettuce 20 

1-2 bu peas 40 

July — 1 bu peas 80 

5 doz carrots 25 

yy doz cabbages 3.85 

60 doz sweet corn 4.80 

2 1-4 bu green beans 1.80 

7 bu potatoes 4.20 




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l6 PRIZE GARDENING 

July — i 1-2 bu beets $ .45 

28 qts tomatoes 1 .40 

4000 sweet peas 4.00 

Aug — 42 1-2 bu sweet corn 2.97 

9 bu potatoes 4.05 

21 1-2 bu tomatoes 12.35 

1 bu beets 30 

8 3-4 doz melons 4.15 

6500 sweet peas 6.50 

30 bdls cornstalks 75 

Sept — 3 1-8 bu lima beans 4.05 

60 bu tomatoes 18.60 

6 bu melons 2.40 

12 bdls cornstalks 30 

Oct — 3 1-2 doz squashes 3.50 

4 bu tomatoes 3.00 

Nov — 1590 cabbages 43-72 

6 1-2 bu parsnips (on hand) 2.25 

8 bu beets (on hand) 2.10 

10 bu roots, sea kale 2.00 

41 1-2 bu mangels (on hand) 6.22 

1 bu onions (on hand) 50 

5 bu carrots (on hand) 1.25 

$169.97 

EXPENSE OF GARDEN 

Rent of land $3.60 

Fertilizer 9.62 

Labor 40.77 

Seeds 4.75 

Plants 8. 10 

Roots 1 .00 

Interest on capital invested at 6 per cent 7.90 

Wear of garden tools at 1 1-2 per cent 1.77 

$77.51 

Proceeds from garden $169.97 

Expense of garden 77- 5 1 

Profit $92.46 

LABOR 

Jan — 4 hours male labor $ .60 

Mar — 20 hours male labor 3.00 

Apr — 12 hours male labor 1.80 

22 1-2 hours female labor 1.80 

May — 2 1-2 hours female labor 20 

28 1-2 hours male labor 4.28 



THE GRAND PRIZE GARDEN lj 

June — 61 1-2 hours male labor $ 9.11 

1 1-2 hours female labor 12 

July — 8 hours female labor 64 

26 1-2 hours male labor 4.18 

Aug — 5 hours male labor 75 

3 hours female labor 24 

Nov — 5 hours male labor 1.05 

$27.77 

July — Marketing $ 2.00 

Aug — Marketing 3.00 

Sept — Marketing 3.00 

Nov — Marketing 5.00 

$40.77 
Male labor, 162 1-2 hours, female labor, $7 1-2 hours. 



Raising and Setting Tomato Plants. — Seed of 
Fordhook's Fancy and Ponderosa was sown in the 
hotbed April 1 and transplanted after the second set 
of leaves appeared. Nitrate of soda was applied, one 
ounce to the sash. The plants were left in the hotbed 
until May 3. Potting soil was prepared by mixing 
three-fourths leaf mold and one-fourth well-rotted 
manure. Six-inch pots, with broken pieces of crocks 
placed in the bottom for drainage, were filled one- 
fourth full of soil. As the plants were put in the pots 
a small handful of Jadoo fiber was placed under and 
around the roots. Sufficient soil to hold the plants in 
place was put in and well firmed around the roots. The 
pots were then filled with the soil and placed in a tub 
partially filled with water which had been exposed to 
the sun, and after soaking were transferred to the cold 
frame. With occasional watering and uncovering, 
when weather permitted, they remained until May 26, 
when they were set in the open ground. 

In planting out, a line was drawn and holes were 
made with a spade three feet each way for Fordhook's 
Fancy and five by six feet for Ponderosa. A tub 



l8 PRIZE GARDENING 

partially filled with water was set near the cold frame. 
The plants were set in and when thoroughly soaked 
were wheeled out and placed along- the rows. In 
planting out, the pot was turned bottom upward onto 
the left hand and the contents loosened by inserting a 
small, smooth stick in the hole at the bottom of the pot 
and pushing against the broken pieces of crocks. 
When loosened the pot was removed, and with the 
right hand holding all intact, the plant was set in the 
hole, which was deep enough to set the roots an inch 
or two lower than in the pot, enabling it to better with- 
stand the whipping of the wind. A dipper of water 
was poured around the roots and the whole filled with 
loose earth. 

While this seems a laborious and an expensive 
method, returns more than justified the extra labor and 
expense. The Jadoo fiber, when properly fined by 
working through a coarse screen, is an ideal prepara- 
tion for potting purposes, and produces a wonderful 
root growth, which is the object sought in the early 
life of all plants. 

Extra Early Potatoes. — In order to get some early 
potatoes we sprouted the seed about the middle of 
April. The potatoes were cut one eye to the piece and 
placed in a tin pan, where sulphur was sprinkled over 
them and thoroughly mixed with the seed. A box 
five inches deep by twenty inches square was filled with 
sand one and one-half inches deep, in which the pieces 
were set. Sufficient sand to nearly cover them was 
sifted in. The contents were sprinkled with tepid 
water and placed in a nearly darkened room with a 
temperature of about sixty-five degrees. They were 
given an occasional sprinkling and left undisturbed for 
three weeks. At this time the pieces had sprouts vary- 
ing from just starting to three or four inches long, and 



THE GRAND PRIZE GARDEN 19 

care in removing from the box to the furrow was nec- 
essary to leave the sprouts undisturbed. 

The results of sprouting the seed were clearly 
marked the entire season. In coming up, growth, 
maturity and harvesting they were fully a week to ten 
days in advance of those unsprouted, making a dif- 
ference of fifteen to twenty cents per bushel in price 
at time of marketing. Sprouting the seed is entirely 
practicable for^larger areas, as the extra labor is a 
mere trifle compared with the difference in market 
values. The results of the sulphur as to scab preven- 
tion were not all that could be desired, although to 
some extent beneficial. The experiment seems to show 
a marked benefit from the sulphur in prolonging the 
vitality of the seed, the pieces in many instances 
remaining intact the entire season through. The wire- 
worms, also, caused very little damage, while on the 
same plot only a few feet distant they were very 
destructive to early cabbage plants. 

Prise Garden Queries. — The published account of 
Mr. Morse's grand prize garden excited general inter- 
est and numerous inquiries were received. Replies by 
Mr. Morse were as follows : 

Potatoes : Bovee and Burpee's Extra Early for 
white, and Acme and Early Six Weeks for flesh color 
are our favorites for early. For very early planting, 
while the ground is yet cold, do not plant deeper than 
three inches ; for later planting, four to six inches is 
not too deep. 

The extra labor of sprouting is really very little, 
and the plan is entirely practicable, even for quite large 
areas. An inch or two of sand is placed in shallow 
boxes of any size convenient. As the pieces are cut, 
they are set in the sand, close together, with eyes up. 
Sift in enough sand to nearly cover the pieces, leaving 
them sticking up through the sand. Sprinkle with 



2Q PRIZE GARDENING 

warm water and set in a partially darkened room or 
cellar where the temperature will be about sixty-five 
degrees. No further care is necessary except to 
sprinkle should they become too dry. This work may 
be done a month previous to planting, with the advan- 
tage that your crop is growing even while the ground 
is still frozen outside. During this time the sprouts 
will have grown two to six or eight inches in length, 
and will require careful handling in planting to avoid 
breaking off. They must be entirely covered, but will 
be out of the ground within a very few days. By this 
method no infertile seed is planted and the potatoes 
will be up ahead of the weeds. The advantage of ten 
days or two weeks in the early markets will many times 
repay the little extra labor. 

Sweet Corn : To sprout the seed, take shallow 
tin or sheet-iron pans or anything in which one can 
give bottom heat if required. Put in an inch or so 
of sand and thoroughly moisten. Over this spread a 
cloth. The corn is then spread on and covered with 
another thickness of cloth. Sprinkle on a light cover- 
ing of moist soil and set in a warm place. Five to 
eight days before planting will be sufficiently early to 
start the seed. By this plan no poor seed will be 
planted and the seed may be put in much earlier with- 
out the danger of rotting. The corn will be ready for 
table or market use. much earlier than by the ordinary 
method of planting. 

Club Root: Many questions from widely differ- 
ent sections indicate that the disease is more general 
than might be supposed, and a brief summary is all 
that can be attempted now. The disease is a fungous 
growth. Wet, acid soil seems to be its natural home, 
but it may be carried or spread in various ways ; as by 
the overflow of surface water or tools used in 
the cultivation of infected ground. The only reme- 



THE GRAND PRIZE GARDEN 21 

dies thus far known are the liberal use of lime, avoid- 
ing the use of tools on other ground that have been 
used in infected ground and burning or boiling all 
affected roots. Never feed any diseased roots raw, 
as the germs will be carried in the manure from stock 
thus fed. 



CHAPTER III 

GARDENING FOR PROFIT 

The best paying gardens were as a class those 
whose owners made them a specialty. They were 
depended upon for a living or as an important source 
of income, and received the gardener's best thought 
and care. They were not allowed to wait until the 
rest of the farm had been planted and most of the 
manure used for field crops. Neither were they left 
to the care of the women folks, already over-busy. In 
haying time the owner did not abandon them to the 
mercy of bugs and weeds, or neglect to pick and sell 
the produce because of a press of other duties. The 
gardener for profit fertilized and cultivated to the best 
of his knowledge. He worked early and late, placing 
the garden first and other interests afterward. In 
many instances he had done so for years and was a 
market gardener by profession. Others were farmers 
who made a specialty of their garden because it paid 
them. The representative instances described show a 
very small farm may be made to afford a livelihood. 

A Good Living from a Garden. — A clear profit of 
six hundred and ninety-four dollars and one cent from 
five acres was made by B. S. Rembaugh of Pettis 
county, Missouri, winner of S. L. Allen & Co.'s special 
first prize of one hundred dollars for the most profitable 
results where their implements were used. Mr. Rem- 
baugh had a small market garden on a plot of less than 
five acres on which to make a living. The land is 
naturally poor and was in sod two years ago. Fer- 
tilizer could not be purchased, owing to lack of capital, 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 23 

but sixty loads of manure were obtained last year, and 
this scant supply, with irrigation and elbow grease, 
made possible a fair yield. A good local market in a 
neighboring city of twenty thousand inhabitants took 
most of the produce raised, although at times the mar- 
ket was glutted and much had to be thrown away. 
Mr. Rembaugh truthfully remarks : " There is noth- 
ing like thorough cultivation and an abundant water 
supply in case of dry weather for making a beautiful 
garden. It is useless to garden for profit unless you 
have a large supply of fertilizers and a sufficiently 
large market to take your produce." 

He began the gardening operations late in Jan- 
uary by sowing tomato seed in shallow boxes in the 
house. Early in March, two cold frames were sown 
to radish, and others were planted March 25 with rad- 
ish, beets and lettuce. A hotbed, six by sixteen feet, 
was planted to cucumbers April 22, being filled with 
sods cut five inches square. On each sod five seeds 
were planted and covered with a little soil. Some 
muskmelons were planted in the same manner. 

The first planting in the open ground was April 
15, when one bushel peas, three pounds spinach, five 
pounds radish, one pound onion, one-half pound turnip 
and one-half pound celery seed were sown. The first 
tomato plants were set May 2 by digging a hole nine 
inches deep and putting in the bottom a shovelful of 
mixed soil and manure. Water was poured in the hole 
before setting the plants. The ground for cucumbers 
and melons was laid off in furrows nine inches deep 
by going four times with the Planet Jr cultivator with 
teeth set close together. A shovelful of compost was 
put in the furrow every three and one-half feet and on 
this a block of sod from the hotbed with the plants was 
set. The melons were set six feet each way. The 
manure and soil from a mushroom bed was well mixed 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 25 

and spread in the bottom of furrows marked out for 
potatoes. Rows for celery were laid off three and 
one-half feet apart and six inches deep. In the bottom 
was put a good dressing of composted manure before 
setting the plants, which were set six inches apart. 
The celery was a second crop after early vegetables, 
and its production was a hard fight, owing to drouth. 
The method of irrigating was to turn water into 
trenches between the rows, which were banked across 
at intervals by little dams of earth, thus holding back 
the water and allowing it to soak into the rows. The 
celery crop was stored in trenches fifteen inches wide, 
eighteen inches deep and two hundred and seventy feet 
long. The plants were dug, the earth knocked off the 
roots, rusty outside leaves pulled off and the plants 
packed closely in the trench, which were covered with 
boards, with earth over all. The fifteen thousand stalks 
at forty cents per dozen netted five hundred dollars. 
Other important crops were salsify, one hundred and 
twenty dollars ; tomatoes, sixty-seven bushels, eighty- 
seven dollars ; muskmelons, three thousand one hun- 
dred and three, one hundred and three dollars ; radishes, 
fifty-seven dollars ; cucumbers, forty-four dollars. 

Concludes this prominent contestant : " Long 
hours and plenty of hard work ; endless quantities of 
well-rotted horse manure ; the most thorough tillage of 
the soil; first-class seed planted with good judgment — 
and with ample moisture one cannot fail to reap a 
good harvest." 

A truly American career is that of Mr. Rem- 
baugh; winning his own way, making and losing 
money with great facility in several locations and occu- 
pations. Of German-English descent, he was thrown 
upon his own resources after eight years old; made 
money as a sutler in the Federal army at the age of 



26 PRIZE GARDENING 

seventeen. After the war he moved from Pennsyl- 
vania to Missouri, started a dairy route, married, went 
to California for his health, managed a dairy farm 
there, returned to Missouri and built a flouring mill, 
saved about fifteen thousand dollars and lost heavily 
by fire, bought a larger mill and did a large business, 
made seventy-five thousand dollars, only to lose every- 
thing through a bank failure, finally starting at mar- 
ket gardening with very slight capital. But a man 
who can make four and one-third acres pay him clear 
profit of six hundred and ninety-four dollars will not 
long be hampered for lack of capital. He states inci- 
dentally that he is selling from two hundred to three 
hundred loaves of bread per day. An unmistakable 
hustler is Mr. Rembaugh, and the bread item suggests 
a family of the same energetic breed. The younger 
daughter, it is stated, sold the garden produce and the 
elder one kept the accounts. 

The story of the garden is at times quite dramatic, 
with its accounts of drouth that lasted until the earth 
gaped for water ; how the gardeners fought with irri- 
gating trenches and a watering system devised for the 
emergency, and how at last the situation is relieved 
and the crops saved by sudden and copious showers. 
There were lively fights, too, with insect foes and mys- 
terious blights that carried off the melon vines, and 
the list of purchases shows the kind of resistance 
made. 

And Mr. Rembaugh worked! Sometimes after 
the list of a day's operations that would look large to 
an easy-going gardener, the comment is noted : " A 
poor day's work." At other times we have such entries 
as the following : " Worked fifteen hours, temperature 
ninety-two. Very tired." This is not the leisurely 
way in which many persons of middle age pass the 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 2J 

season of hot weather, but it is the way to make money 
in gardening. 

The bill of expense itemizes thirty-eight dollars 
for seeds, two dollars and twenty-five cents for ma- 
nures, forty-seven dollars and ten cents for miscella- 
neous and two hundred and fifty-six dollars and fifty- 
nine cents for labor. Total, three hundred and forty- 
five dollars and thirteen cents, which is deducted from 
sales amounting to one thousand two hundred and 
thirty-nine dollars and fourteen cents. The small pay- 
ment for manure is because most of it was obtained 
for the hauling, while the cost of the portion bought 
was only from ten to twenty-five cents per load. Labor 
was charged at ten cents per hour for men and five 
cents for women and boys. Actual cash paid for out- 
side labor was eighty-seven dollars. 

FIVE ACRES ENOUGH 

A little farm well tilled will produce a larger 
income than a large one half worked. Five acres 
devoted to rasing vegetables has made a comfortable 
living for L. C. Wright & Son of Oswego county, New 
York, one of the leading prize winners. They were 
able to do nearly all their own work of growing and 
marketing the crops, raised much of their own seed 
from selected plants, kept some hogs and hens to add 
somewhat to the income and incidentally produce 
most of the manure used, so that they paid out but a 
very small portion of the gross receipts. The products 
were marketed at wholesale in Oswego, three miles 
away, and the delivery, therefore, was quickly done. 
Only such crops as were in good demand were grown, 
but enough of them to make variety and a constant 
supply of something from early spring until late fall. 



28 



PRIZE GARDENING 



The illustration on Page 30 shows clearly the 
arrangement of the plot and the crops grown. Con- 
siderable space was devoted to grapes, strawberries, 
raspberries and asparagus, for which there was a good 
demand at a fair price. The small, closely set, narrow 
teeth were used almost entirely on the cultivation 
instead of the two and one-half -inch teeth commonly 




THE EARLY HOTBEDS 

used. The methods employed in growing crops will 
be described in the words of Mr. Wright. 

Tomatoes. — Ground had been plowed, harrowed 
and marked out with shovel plow in deep furrows, five 
feet apart, and cross-marked in rows four feet, until 
we found by counting up hills we would be short of 
ground. So we cross-marked the balance about three 
and one-half feet. With hoes we pulled the soil out 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 20, 

of the furrows where they crossed. The hills were 
about eight inches deep and fourteen inches wide. 
Each hill received a manure fork full of well-rotted 
horse manure. This was covered with soil, not mixed 
with it, to the depth of six inches. 

Our plants were ready to set June 2 ; after thor- 
oughly watering them so the soil would stick to the 
roots, took them up carefully, about fifty at a time, 
placed them in our two-wheel garden cart and drew 
them to the prepared hills. Placed a plant on each 
hill. One man took a garden hoe with extra large 
blade and the other man picked up the plant. The 
hoe was driven into the hill by striking with edge of 
the blade deep enough to strike the manure. The soil 
was held up with the hoe while the plant was placed, 
top facing east, with roots under the soil and into the 
hill so that the soil held up by hoe when released 
would cover roots and stalk of plant about eight inches. 
The soil held up by hoe was then released and firmed 
by pressing down with the foot on soil directly over 
the roots of plant. This left plant when set lying 
down. We set all tomato plants this way. Never 
set them upright, as the wind is apt to break them off. 
Although the plant is set flat down, in five or six days 
it will turn and stand up straight, but this gives the 
plant time to toughen up, and any ordinary wind will 
not break it. By covering stalk of plant in the hill it 
will send out roots, make a stronger, better plant and 
produce more fruit. 

Experience and practice in former times has 
taught us that tomato vines will produce more fruit 
and ripen earlier if broken down. We break them 
down as follows : Stand close to the plant, stoop half 
over, bring hands together in front of you with arms 
at full length in form of a letter V or wedge, with 
hands still together, push through the center of the 



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GARDENING FOR PROFIT 3 1 

plant. Now open your arms and hands, and with a 
gentle side sweep press the vines as separated down 
liat on all sides of the hill. Now press down on the 
top of the vines as they lay down. Don't be afraid, 
press them down so they will stay down. If this is 
done at midday you will not break off one vine in a 
hundred. Vines when broken down will show green 
tomatoes three-fourths size of the first setting. 

We do not make hotbeds. We have a set of boxes 
twenty-four by eighteen inches, and one and one-half 
inches deep, that we take to the greenhouse with our 
seed. They are grown in these boxes and when they 
are four inches high we take them home and transplant 
into cold frames. This saves us a lot of expense and 
labor, and we always have fine plants ready in time to 
set in the open ground. 

We have successfully grown tomatoes for years, 
early and late, and are satisfied that in the frames is 
where the early tomatoes are made. In our opinion 
not one gardener in a hundred gives the plants enough 
room in the frames. Our plants when set out often 
have small tomatoes set and are large and stocky, 
healthy plants, that when properly set out never wilt 
down, but commence at once to grow. 

A Cucumber Experiment. — W r e had been thinking 
for some time about growing White Spine cucumbers 
for slicing, under glass outdoors. This proved to be 
one of the most profitable and interesting experiments 
we have made in our experience of twenty years as 
market gardeners. 

We had on hand four sash eight by three and one- 
half feet with no glass in. We purchased cotton cloth 
and covered these frames. We also used five sash 
with glass in three by three and one-half feet. We 
plowed, harrowed and cultivated the plot to be used 
and raked it level with a garden rake. We took one- 



32 



PRIZE GARDENING 



inch hemlock boards twelve inches wide and made a 
frame forty-seven feet long and three and one-half 
feet wide, just the width and length of the cloth and 
glass sashes combined, and put in the necessary cross- 
pieces to slide the sash on. We had ready a compost 
manure one-third each of horse, hog and hen manure. 
This had been thoroughly worked over four or five 
times. With hoes we made inside this frame twelve 
holes eight inches deep and two feet in diameter. Put 




CUCUMBER VINES DUSTED WITH LIME, AND BOX FRAMES 



in two tile sixteen inches long and two inches in diam- 
eter. In each hill we put a heaping shovelful of the 
compost manure. We now added one-half the soil 
thrown out of the holes to the manure and thoroughly 
mixed it with a spreading fork. We then put on each 
hill all the hardwood ashes we could take up in one 
hand, then put back the balance of the soil thrown out 
of the holes. Sowed five pounds of potash on top of 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 33 

the twelve hills and raked it in with a garden rake. 
The hills were now four inches above the level and 
held the tile firm and upright. We now sowed four- 
teen seed on top of each hill, put on three-fourths 
inch fine soil, put on the sash frames, and our 
cucumber experiment was started. 

As soon as they were out of the ground, on warm 
days, we would water lightly on the surface. On 
cloudy days would not touch them ; they got all the 
air they needed through the cloth-covered sashes. We 
did not have to put extra covering over them only one 
night. June 17 took off the sashes and hoed the plants 
nicely. They then looked fine; just as nice under the 
cloth sashes as under the glass. 

We now commenced to water in the tile, and from 
this time until the vines were pulled up, no matter how 
tired we were, they were watered on the surface in 
the morning and in the tile after the sun went down. 
They grew rapidly, and on July 1 the vines had com- 
pletely filled the frames and were up to the bottom of 
the sashes. We now took the sash and frames away, 
and there we had the finest hills of cucumbers we had 
ever seen, growing in the same length of time. They 
continued to grow, blossom and bear until the rows 
were a solid mass of vines six feet wide. 

It was a pleasure to tend them and watch them 
grow and bear. Through the long-continued drouth 
not a leaf turned yellow, all on account of having all 
the water they wanted. On July 15 we picked the first 
cucumber ; when we picked the last cucumber Septem- 
ber 11, the vines were still green, but they had borne 
out ; there was not a single blossom left. 

We have a bath tub close to the well and eight 
feet from where we grew this frame of cucumbers. 
The water used was pumped into the bath tub every 
morning. We have purchased another bath tub, also 



34 PRIZE GARDENING 

a tank that will hold four barrels, and shall try this 
more extensively next summer. The cucumbers were 
large when cut, weighing on an average ten pounds to 
the dozen. Sales from the twelve hills, eight hundred 
and thirty-five at from one to four cents each, fourteen 
dollars and twenty-seven cents. 

Early Potatoes. — The ground was plowed deep 
with a heavy team, thoroughly harrowed and marked 
with a horse marker in rows three feet apart. It was 
then furrowed out with cultivator with double mold- 
board plow attachment, going four times in each row 
and making furrows seven inches deep and fifteen 
inches wide. The soil was all dry, light and warm by 
the time we were ready to cover the seed. We then 
scattered finely pulverized hen manure in the rows. 
As we were short of seed we planted whole small pota- 
toes, dropping them on the manure in the furrow, one 
potato in a place, about sixteen inches apart. 

We put the side hillers on the cultivator and cov- 
ered the potatoes by running between the rows. After 
covering we rolled them with the garden roller, run- 
ning it on top of the rows. In seventeen days they were 
all up so we could see the rows. We then went over the 
piece with a straight, square steel-tooth harrow closed 
to three feet, and also cultivated between the rows with 
the cultivator with the narrow teeth. On June 14 we 
hilled them, using the hillers on the cultivator, and 
although we had not used hand hoes, not a weed was 
to be seen and there was not a missing hill. 

Money in Berries. — Two men went ahead of the 
horse and cultivator with common hand hay rakes 
and raked the straw from between the rows up on the 
rows, working one row at a time. We then went twice 
through each row with cultivator, small teeth on, set 
to run deep. This loosened up the soil between the 
rows. The straw was then raked back into the rows 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 35 

as fast as they were cultivated, leaving a light cover- 
ing of straw on the plants, the idea being that the soil 
would be stirred up and straw put back on it would act 
as mulch and retain the moisture. In the long-con- 
tinued drouth that followed it proved to be a good 
thing and saved our crop. We think we got one-third 
more fruit by the above method. Sales from the plot, 
two hundred and twenty-eight by eighty-nine feet, were 
one hundred and twenty-one dollars and seventy cents. 

In our opinion the hill system as the way to grow 
big berries and lots of them. Anyone who is short 
of ground can keep a bed set in this way in full bearing 
for three years. It has been done on this place. 

The Palmetto Asparagus beds are five years old, 
have always had good care and plenty of manure. On 
April 19 we cultivated these beds with cultivator, 
small teeth on. After cultivating and ridging up soil 
on the rows, the beds were harrow r ed with the harrow 
closed to three feet. We then plowed between and 
forced the earth upon the rows over the plants. This 
left a furrow between the plants about six inches deep 
and twenty inches wide. Sowed in this furrow two 
hundred pounds of coarse ground bone, which was 
worked in with the cultivator, going over each row 
twice. We then went over the beds crosswise with 
the harrow closed. This was the finish, and the beds 
were in fine shape, being mellow and free from weeds. 
We use bone and stable manure in fall and we grow 
fine asparagus. 

Our Vineyard contains one hundred and seven 
Worden vines, six years old. It w r as manured with 
stable manure and cultivated in the fall of 1898. On 
April 15 we pruned the vines, cutting back all new 
wood to two eyes, and all old wood that would in any 
way interfere with the growth of the clusters and the 
free circulation of air and sunshine. After pruning 



36 PRIZE GARDENING 

we tied up the vines to the wires, being careful to keep 
them well spread in fan shape. April 17 we culti- 
vated the vineyard with Planet Jr cultivator with small 
teeth on, going four times in each row. This left the 
ground fine and mellow. 

Weeds were kept in check by cultivating and hoe- 
ing. The vines made a splendid growth and a won- 
derful setting of fruit. The weight of new wood and 
fruit was such as to threaten breaking down the trellis. 
On August 11, with pruning shears, we cut back the 
new wood to within ten inches of the last cluster. This 
saved the vines, and how the clusters did grow ! In 
twelve years' experience growing Worden grapes we 
never saw vines carry such loads of fruit. Experts 
estimated the crop on the vines at one and one-half 
tons. A severe frost October 2 caught many of them 
and we cut but two thousand four hundred and fifty- 
five pounds. 

The Value of Labor in caring for the crops of this 
good garden was one hundred and forty-seven dollars 
and thirty cents, for preparing the products for market 
and marketing same eighty-five dollars, manure nine- 
teen dollars and forty cents, plants and seeds ten dol- 
lars and nine cents, picking two thousand one hundred 
quarts strawberries thirty-one dollars and fifty cents, 
picking currants and raspberries six dollars and two 
cents, incidental expenses one dollar and five cents, or 
a total of three hundred dollars and thirty-six cents. 
There was sold up to the time the report closed four 
hundred and forty dollars and forty-nine cents worth 
of fruits and vegetables, used in familv twenty-seven 
dollars and seventy-six cents, and on hand one hun- 
dred and twenty-five dollars and seventy-three cents, 
or a total of five hundred and ninety-three dollars and 
ninety-eight cents, leaving a profit above cost of two 
hundred and ninety-three dollars and sixty-two cents. 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 37 

A Twenty-acre Garden. — One of the largest gar- 
dens, or garden farms, was that of W. H. McMillen, 
Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The whole place of twenty acres 
was entered and the method with each important crop 
is told in detail, receiving a ten-dollar prize. Income 
was about one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars 
and cost about five hundred and fifty. The expense 
account is somewhat unusual, as it includes all house- 
hold expenses as well as payments for business supplies 
and hired help. But no allowance is made for the work 
and time of the owner. Thus the seven hundred sur- 
plus represents the cash sum which the owner receives 
for his time and investment, having received also his 
living expenses for the period, March to November. 
The manure was mostly obtained for the hauling. 
Among the expense items are noticed one hundred and 
forty dollars for hired man eight months, ninety-seven 
dollars and forty cents for picking berries, thirty-seven 
dollars for hired girl, twenty dollars for wood and 
twenty-two dollars for coal, twenty-eight dollars for 
dry goods, other items being mostly for provisions and 
farm supplies. Following is the cream of Mr. Mc- 
Millen's very instructive account : 

The first seed that are sown in the open ground 
are peas. I sow on well enriched land and prefer 
rather a heavy soil for peas. I plow the land in the 
fall, then disk, lapping the disk one-half. This leaves 
no ridges. Then drag the land, plank and drag, and 
plank again. Then I have land as mellow as an ash 
bed. I use a seed drill, hill dropper and fertilizer 
combined. I have a two-foot marker instead of an 
eighteen-inch, one that comes with the drill. I set my 
marker two feet and sow peas very thick in rows. I sow 
two rows about four inches apart and then two feet ; 
this gives the vines a better chance to stand up. One 
row supports the other. I find this a very profitable way 



38 



PRIZE GARDENING 



to grow them. When two inches high I begin to cul- 
tivate them. I use a twelve-tooth cultivator and aim 
to cultivate twice a week until last cultivating. I then 
use a larger shovel, throwing some dirt to the roots. 

Next come the onions. I plow in the fall. Manure 
well before plowing, and after I use well-rotted manure 
for the dressing. Disk in, harrow, plank and harrow, 




A THRIFTY MARKET GARDEN 



and plank, and you will have your bed as fine and as 
mellow as an ash bed. We sow our seeds middling 
shallow and thick. If they should be too thick you 
can thin them out. We sow them twenty inches 
between rows ; we use a seed drill, and when the 
onions are up so I can see the rows I go through them 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 39 

with a wheel hoe, to which I attach a pair of rakes so 
as to straddle the rows, and the rakes will loosen the 
earth. Next we take off the rakes and attach the 
scuffer hoe, which we run between the rows twice, and 
when the onions are four inches high we weed them. 
This is done with a hand weeder, and this is the time 
to thin them should they be too thick. We usually 
weed them twice on hands and knees. Next we use 
the one-horse, fine-tooth cultivator. We sow a small 
patch of carrots and beets for early use and treat them 
the same as onions. 

Next we planted early potatoes. I like a sandy 
soil with clover turned under about September and 
then in the spring apply a light coat of manure, and 
disk, lapping one-half. This will cut nearly as deep 
as if it were plowed. Drag and plank. Mark three 
feet between rows ; furrow out ; drop seed twelve 
inches apart, two to three eyes in a piece of potato, 
then cover with a hoe lightly and when coming up 
drag them. I use a lever drag, tipping the lever so 
the teeth are quite slanting, dragging the same way 
as planted. When three or four inches high we use 
the fine-tooth cultivator. Next cultivating use the 
large cultivator. We keep them cultivated as long as 
the vines will permit, then we hill them. By planting 
close we get a heavy growth of vines. They come 
together and shade the roots and therefore keep mois- 
ture in the land. We cultivate as long as we can before 
hilling. We have good results from growing by this 
method. 

Next we set out strawberries. I like a fall plow- 
ing with a heavy coat of manure turned under. I top- 
dress the bed with a fine and well-rotted manure. 
Disk, drag and plank. Mark four feet between rows. 
Every other row I set with a fertilizing berry. I 
never mark over three rows at a time before I set. 



40 PRIZE GARDENING 

I have a hand marker, making three rows at once. I 
set two of them and use the third for a line to mark 
back on. I use a trowel for setting. I never dig more 
plants at one time than I can set in half a day, and I 
keep them well sprinkled and covered with a blanket. 
This is my method of setting strawberries, and I 
always have a good stand of plants. In setting them 
I allow eighteen inches apart in the rows. 

Next I set my early cabbages. Manure heavy and 
plow deep. Fall plowing I like best. I do not think 
fall plowing is affected so much by drouth as spring 
plowing. I like a top dressing. Disk and drag and 
plank; mark three feet, set eighteen to twenty inches 
apart in rows. I use the Charleston Wakefield for 
early. When the plants have been set a week, culti- 
vate with a fine-tooth cultivator, and then hoe. 

If I am to set any raspberries I pick a piece of 
light soil with a red clay bottom land that will grow 
a good crop of corn. Plow deep, drag, plank and 
mark seven feet one way and four feet the other, then 
use the cultivator. I take all the shovels off but one 
large one, furrow one way (deep) and drop the plants 
in the four-foot mark. One drops the plants and one 
covers. When I am selecting a quantity of plants I 
dig the new plants which come up in the spring, put- 
ting about four of them in one hill. This will give a 
nice hill of new canes for the next season without wait- 
ing for shoots to come up from the setting. Having 
finished setting, I cultivate both ways, then I shall 
have the furrows filled and the land level. I usually 
plant two rows of corn between the rows first year. 
Second year I plant a row of potatoes between. By 
doing this I keep the bushes well cultivated and grow 
a nice crop of potatoes. After the second year it is 
useless to plant anything between them, but keep them 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 41 

well cultivated. This rule applies for setting black 
raspberries and blackberries. 

Land that will grow a fair crop of corn will grow 
tomatoes. I plow my land in the fall, and in the spring 
disk, lapping one-half. Drag, plank, and drag and 
plank again, then mark four and one-half feet each 
way. Use a heavy one-horse marker. Mark as deep 
as possible, and if the land is mellow dig the holes with 
the hands. We set three and one-half acres this 
spring. When we are ready to set we take one horse 
and a stone boat and set the. plants on the boat, and 
drive between the rows ; one man to drop them and 
two men to set them. The plants are dropped on each 
crossing, using our hands to dig the holes. Set the 
plants in ; press the dirt firmly about the plants ; when 
they have been set one week, fill in, if any are missing, 
and cultivate each way. I give them all the cultivating 
I can. We have a nice clean patch, plenty of fruit 
and never had a hoe in them. 

A Gardener's Calendar. — The routine of a good- 
sized farm market garden is also related in a very help- 
ful manner by a successful contestant, G. J. Townsend, 
of Wayne county, New York, and his story is quoted 
below for the five busy months beginning with : 

April. — I plowed about nine or ten inches deep. 
Potatoes I planted in drills about fourteen inches by 
three feet, four or five inches deep. Onion seed I 
sowed in drills fourteen inches apart. Beets and car- 
rots I sowed in drills two feet apart. The above 
ground I harrowed three or four times and rolled : 
the last time I attached a plank behind the harrow to 
leave it smooth. The rhubarb and asparagus beds I 
dug up about three or four inches deep. Seed pota- 
toes I cut two or three eyes in a piece. I raked off 
about half the straw from the strawberry bed, leaving 
the rest for mulching and to keep the berries clean. 



42 



PRIZE GARDENING 



By leaving this straw on them a week or two longer 
it will protect them from frost and prolong the season 
for ripe berries. I put a small handful of fertilizer 
on the hills of potatoes and worked it in with the 
weeder. I soaked some of the seed potatoes in corro- 
sive sublimate water for scabs before cutting. I take 
about two ounces corrosive sublimate dissolved in a 
little warm water, then put it into about sixteen gal- 
lons of water in a barrel; stir it up well, put in pota- 




WORKING A NEW YORK TRUCK PATCH 



toes and let them soak about one and one-half hours. 
This water is good for about four batches. Be care- 
ful that stock do not eat any of the seed. Hotbeds 
made the last of March and first of April I only put 
about a foot of manure in. 

May. — I set strawberry plants three and one-half 
feet by twenty inches in rows, digging the hole with 
a trowel and pressing the dirt firmly around the roots. 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 43 

Corn I planted three by two feet, about four or five ker- 
nels in a hill. Some of the onion, beet and carrot seeds 
did not even come up on account of the wind blowing 
the dirt off of them. I try to run the weeder over 
potatoes once a week, and after every shower as soon 
as they are dry enough, until they get to about eight 
inches high, then run cultivator as long as I can get 
through. By doing this I do not have much hoeing 
and keep in the moisture. All the hilling they get is 
with the wings on the cultivator. To burn worms' 
nests out of trees I get a long pole and tie some waste 
or cotton on the end with wire and put on some 
kerosene. 

About the first of May I leave the covering off of 
the tomatoes in frames day and night to harden them, 
if there is no danger of frost. Give the plants a good 
watering before taking up. I take one plant up at a 
time with a handful of dirt pressed together and put 
them in crates. I set the Atlantic Prize three and 
one-half by three feet, the Champion three and one- 
half by two feet. Dig a hole with a fork, drop in a 
small handful of fertilizer one side, put water in hole, 
set plants, mix fertilizer with dirt, keeping it away from 
the roots. For about two weeks after tomatoes are 
set keep watch of the potato bugs and pick them off. 
Putting cold water on plants to draw out the frost is 
all right when it does not freeze. Better cover pota- 
toes with dirt with a plow before a frost. All the blos- 
soms on the new strawberry bed I keep picked off. 
Putting wood ashes on onions after weeding will help 
to keep the insects away. When through with the 
hotbed sashes I put them under cover. I give them a 
coat of paint every three or four years. 

June. — I kept the runners out off the strawberry 
plants until about the first of July. I cultivated the 
potatoes shallow toward the last. Thinned out the 



44 PRIZE GARDENING 

beets to four or five inches apart and the carrots to two 
or three inches apart. The best way is to pick the bugs 
from the squashes every day. Carbolic acid diluted 
with water will keep the bugs away for three or four 
days. I paris green the potatoes with a spray pump. 
It holds about a pint of water. Put in one teaspoon- 
ful of paris green every time. The Early Michigan 
tomato plants I set out four by four feet apart and the 
cabbages two and one-half by two and one-half feet. 
I pay one and one-half cents for picking strawberries, 
one-fourth cent more than the regular price. I have 
them assorted when they are picked, being careful not 
to have them bruised. The two-year-old strawberry 
bed on the east side was nearly a failure on account 
of freezing and the drouth. I only covered the new 
bed with straw. After picking a few quarts from this 
old bed I plowed it and set it to tomatoes and cabbages. 
I had six kinds of strawberries this year, the Wilson, 
Buback, Jessie, Marshall, Sharpless and Van Deman. 
The Buback, Jessie and Wilson have done the best for 
me. The Van Deman is a good early berry. The; 
Sharpless I have given up and shall give up the Mar- 
shall next year. The celery plants I transplanted when 
about two inches high into a well prepared bed, about 
two inches apart. 

July. — The early potato ground I sowed to tur- 
nips in drills two feet apart. Cucumber seed I planted 
in hills about six feet apart, twelve to fifteen seeds to 
a hill, thinning out to about six vines in a hill. Pump- 
kins I thinned to two or three vines in a hill. Renewed 
the old strawberry bed by mowing them down after 
fruiting and cultivating and hoeing them out. Set 
out one row of strawberries between a row of potatoes. 
Cauliflower I set two and one-half feet apart. For 
celery I dug trenches about ten inches deep, worked in 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 



45 



some well-rotted manure, set plants about six inches 
apart, watered well. The trenches I have about four 
feet apart. 

August. — I picked the onions up in crates and 
drew them to the corn house to be topped some rainy 
day. The Atlantic Prize tomato is the earliest, but 




A YORK STATE TRUCK PATCH IN JULY 

will not sell well when other kinds are in the market. 
The Dwarf Champion is the best for general use. The 
Early Michigan is a good tomato, but rotted some this 
year. On my other ground the Stone proved to be 
the best canning tomato. 

Money from a Minnesota Garden. — Some of the 
best market gardens were in the northwest, and the 
returns usually show fair prices and brisk demand. 
A profitable six acres is described by C. L. Hill, 



46 PRIZE GARDENING 

Minnesota, sixth Allen prize winner. Land being more 
plenty than labor, the methods were directed toward 
production of most returns for least labor. Nothing 
was crowded. Even the onions and beets were in 
rows three feet apart, so that they could be cultivated 
by horse and wheel hoes. Onions were weeded twice 
by hand, also some other crops. 

The financial results are worked out clearly and 
with care, showing total income of eight hundred and 
twenty-five dollars and twenty-five cents and net profit 
of five hundred and ninety dollars and ninety cents. 
No manure or fertilizer seems to have been used, and 
the main charge is two hundred and thirty-two dollars 
and fifty-five cents for labor, most of which is for one 
man, with an extra hand for three or four months. In 
round sums the labor cost twenty-five dollars in May, 
fifty dollars in June, fifty dollars in July, thirty-eight 
dollars in August, forty-seven dollars in September and 
twenty-three dollars in October, the account including 
every stroke of labor done. Mr. Hill seems to have 
solved the problem of making a living from six acres, 
even in a season unfavorable to some crops. An inter- 
esting feature of his account is the valuation of crops 
expressed in rate per acre, which is as follows in even 
dollars : 

Beets, per acre, one hundred and twenty-five dol- 
lars ; cabbage, one hundred and eleven dollars; car- 
rots, one hundred and twenty-eight dollars ; cauli- 
flower, one hundred and fifty-three dollars ; sweet corn, 
ninety-two dollars ; cucumbers, one hundred and twen- 
ty-nine dollars ; currants, sixty-seven dollars ; ground 
cherries, two hundred and thirteen dollars ; gooseber- 
ries, ninety-five dollars ; lettuce, one hundred and thirty 
dollars ; muskmelons, one hundred and sixty-four dol- 
lars ; onions, one hundred and forty-five dollars ; pars- 
nips, two hundred and four dollars ; pepper eighty-six 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT 47 

dollars ; pie plant, one hundred and twenty-three dol- 
lars ; early potatoes, one hundred and five dollars ; peas, 
seventy-five dollars ; radishes, sixty-nine dollars ; rasp- 
berries, two hundred and twenty-six dollars ; squashes, 
eighty-eight dollars ; strawberries, two hundred and 
forty dollars ; tomatoes, one hundred and twelve dol- 
lars ; turnips, eighty-six dollars. 

A Large and Profitable Market Garden was con- 
ducted by A. Brackett, Excelsior, Minnesota, the fif- 
teenth regular prize winner. There were four and one- 
half acres, renting value five dollars per acre. Most of 
the produce was sold at wholesale. Total proceeds, five 
hundred and thirteen dollars and ninety-one cents ; 
expense, two hundred and five dollars and eighty-two 
cents ; net A three hundred and eight dollars and nine 
cents. Writes Mr. Brackett : " Our estimate on ex- 
pense was figured at one dollar and a half per day for 
labor, but taking out all other expenses, we find that 
we cleared four dollars and a quarter a day." 



CHAPTER IV 

GOOD FARM GARDENS 

The claim has been made that the tillers of the soil 
in the more thickly settled parts of the continent are no 
longer strictly farmers, but gardeners, rather ; deriving 
their incomes less from staple farm crops than from 
vegetables, fruit and specialties. This is an extreme 
statement of a growing tendency of farmers near good 
markets to emphasize the production of crops, the value 
of which depends largely upon being used while fresh, 
thus assuring the cream of the market to nearby 
growers. In growing staple crops, cheap and distant 
lands may compete, but in producing the perishable 
specialties a convenient location gives decided advan- 
tage. The tendency to larger and better farm gardens 
is, however, noticed also in sections comparatively new ; 
a fact which shows the increasing prosperity of the 
people and their ability to appreciate and pay for more 
of the solid, wholesome luxuries. The gardens here 
described are those of farmers who make more or less 
of a specialty of fruit and vegetables. 

A Luxuriant Iowa Garden of four acres is clearly 
described by A. A. Atwood, Shenandoah, Iowa, winner 
of sixth regular prize. He grew produce worth two 
hundred and twenty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents 
at a cost of ninety-four dollars and thirty-eight cents, 
of which fourteen dollars was for rent, sixteen dollars 
and forty cents for seeds, etc., and sixty-three dollars 
and twenty-five cents for labor, reckoning teams at 
two dollars per day and men one dollar. The total 



GOOD FARM GARDENS 49 

amount actually paid out was thirty-three dollars and 
ninety cents and the crops actually sold were one hun- 
dred and nineteen dollars and fifty-eight cents. No 
manures seem to have been used. 

The Henderson bush lima produced at the rate of 
one hundred and forty bushels per acre in the pod, and 
cost at rate of thirty-nine dollars and twelve cents per 
acre. They shelled two and one-fourth quarts to the 
peck. Planted May 8, they were ready to use August 
5. Garden beets planted April 21 were ready for use 
June 17 and June 26, according to earliness of location. 
Yield was at rate of seven hundred bushels per acre. 
Early cabbage, planted in cold frames April 13, was 
transplanted May 17, was hoed and cultivated twice, 
and was first used for table July 17. Variety, Burpee's 
All Head. Crop at rate of four thousand five hundred 
and ten per acre, worth one hundred and seventy-one 
dollars and thirty-eight cents, at cost for seed and labor 
of twenty-nine dollars and fifteen cents. Late cabbage 
was transplanted June 17, was sprayed for cabbage 
worm September 6 with one ounce insect powder to 
three gallons water, mixing twenty-four hours before 
wanted. 

Early Shaker sweet corn, planted May 8, was 
ready July 26 and yielded at the rate of seven thousand 
one hundred and fifty ears and five and one-half bushels 
seed per acre, worth forty-two dollars and sixteen dol- 
lars, respectively, at a cost of sixteen dollars. White 
Rice popcorn yielded at rate of sixty-six bushels at a 
cost of fourteen dollars and fifty-five cents. Of sev- 
eral kinds of pickling cucumbers, Early Frame proved 
most profitable, being early, productive and easily 
gathered. Spraying with one ounce sulphur to one 
gallon water drove away the lice. | Thick planting pro- 
vided plants enough to spare some for the striped 
beetle, a plan found cheaper than liming or other reme- 



50 PRIZE GARDENING 

dies. Crop was at rate of one hundred and twenty-six 
thousand five hundred per acre, worth two hundred 
and fifty-three dollars and costing sixty-seven dollars 
and sixty-five cents. Three pounds of seed were gath- 
ered from five hundred grown specimens. Onions pro- 
duced at the rate of three hundred and seventy bushels, 
the Prizetaker variety proving the most productive. 
White Portugal was smaller than Wethersfield or 
Silver Skin. Peas gave about two hundred bushels 
per acre. The produce of an acre of tomatoes sold at 
five dollars per ton to the canners brought thirty-six 
dollars and thirty-three cents. In regard to his potato 
field of one acre, Mr. Atwood writes : 

The ground planted to potatoes last year had been 
in corn the year previous. The variety was Early 
Ohio. The seed was somewhat scabby and small, aver- 
aging about the size of a walnut with the shuck on, 
the larger ones being cut into pieces with one or two 
eyes. The seed was cut as the potatoes were sorted. 
We finished planting April 25 and vised eight bushels 
of seed. They were all up by May 15. They were 
cultivated twice during the season, May 24 and June 
1, with a two-horse cultivator, and harrowed the day 
following the first cultivation for the purpose of 
killing the scattering weeds and leveling the ground. 
They were hoed after the first cultivation. At the last 
cultivation the cultivator shovels were turned so as to 
ridge up or throw the dirt along the row. On June 
22 we went over the piece with a hoe and cut out what 
scattering weeds remained. 

We began using new potatoes June 30 and con- 
sumed twelve bushels up to October 1, when the crop 
was dug, the total yield being one hundred and fifty 
bushels. The potatoes were dug or plowed out, using 
the corn lister, it throwing a double furrow, one each 
way, and being very convenient for that purpose. It 



GOOD FARM GARDENS 51 

took a man and team nine hours to plow out the pota- 
toes and two men six hours each on three days to pick 
them up. The cost was as follows : Preparing 
ground, two dollars and fifteen cents; seed, eight 
bushels at sixty cents, four dollars and eighty cents ; 
cutting and planting, two dollars ; cultivating, three 
dollars and sixty cents ; harvesting, four dollars and 
twenty cents ; total, sixteen dollars and seventy-five 
cents, or eleven and two-tenths cents per bushel. Writ- 
ing since the contest Mr. Atwood says : 

The experience gained from the prize garden 
was so great and important that it would be hard to 
tell which was the most so. One very essential part 
was that it pays to keep an itemized account of the 
work, kinds and amount of seed planted ; see which is 
the most productive and give the garden proper care 
and attention. By so doing a person can tell just what 
benefit it is and which part pays best. 

Having thoroughly investigated it I can honestly 
say that every farmer should grow enough at least for 
family use of such kinds or varieties of garden vege- 
tables as they would most desire, the size of the garden 
depending largely upon the size of the family using it. 

Born in Whiteside county, Illinois, August 29, 
1856, I received a common school education and lived 
there until the year 1880, when I moved to Page county, 
Iowa, where (with the exception of two years that I 
lived in Omaha, Nebraska, most of the time conduct- 
ing a hotel, and in Florida one season studying their 
mode of gardening and fruit raising, and part of a 
season on the Pacific coast for the same purpose), the 
principal part of my time has been put in farming and 
gardening. While living on the farm I filled several 
small offices, including that of township justice of the 
peace. In 1890 I took the United States census in a 
part of Fremont county, Iowa, and in 1900 I took it 



52 PRIZE GARDENING 

in a part of Page county, Iowa. I have traveled around 
a great deal, principally to look at the country; have 
been in nearly every state south and west of and includ- 
ing Ohio. 

A Connecticut Valley Garden. — A concise, read- 
able story is told by G. W. F. Campbell, Hampshire 
county, Massachusetts, winner of second Woodruff 
prize. His lot comprised eighteen-one hundredths of 
an acre of sandy loam in the Connecticut river valley. 
Tools and land were worth forty-six dollars ; seed, two 
dollars and ten cents ; fertilizers, seven dollars and 
thirty-five cents. A limited but well chosen list was 
planted, including Egyptian beet, Valentine, Six Weeks 
and bush lima beans, First of All corn, Bliss Everbear- 
ing and Notts Excelsior peas, also radishes, lettuce 
and onions. By limiting variety he was able to give 
more space to each species, and to save cost by getting 
seeds at quart and pound rates; labor at fifteen to 
twenty-five cents per hour cost twelve dollars and nine 
cents ; income was twenty-eight dollars and seventy- 
one cents ; net gain, seven dollars and fifty-four cents, 
or seventeen per cent on the invested value in land and 
tools. Mr. Campbell writes the following account : 

The spot was a garden and onion field last year. 
Previous to that time it was an old orchard. In the fall 
a coat of manure was put on and plowed in. This spring 
the land was pulverized with a smoothing harrow. 
Fertilizer was sown before putting on the smoothing 
harrow. April 24, onion and lettuce seeds were sown 
in drills. On the 26th, beets, spinach, peas, radishes 
and beans were planted. The peas, with the excep- 
tion of a few, were soaked in water twenty-four hours. 
May 3 found the soaked peas up, while those planted 
dry did not appear until two days later. Six rhubarb 
plants, which were manured this spring, and also the 
strawberry plants looked thrifty at this date. Between 



GOOD FARM GARDENS 



53 



May 9 and 12 a smoothing- harrow was used on all 
ground not yet planted, to keep down weeds and pre- 
pare for seeding: Onions, spinach and beans were 
cultivated with a wheel hoe May 12, with very satis- 
factory results. When using the machine the dirt is 
thrown from the row and not on the growing crops. 
The machine does good work and runs easily, as was 
proved in furrowing out to plant the second lot of peas 
and beans. 



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GARDEN OF G. W. F. CAMPBELL 

Nearly all seeds have been sown and planted with- 
out firming the ground. This prevents excessive 
evaporation and assists the seeds to come up quickly. 
Watering the garden with a rake is an effective method. 
A layer of loose earth on top holds the moisture in the 
ground and frequent rakings keep the surface from 
crusting. 

Lima beans planted with eyes down will appear 
quickly and not rot as when planted the other way. 



54 



Frize Gardening 



May 20 found the beans up and looking thrifty. On 
June 5, radishes of the second planting were pulled. 

The strawberry yield was in every way gratifying. 
The berries were plenty and of good flavor and size. 
From the small bed, nine hundred and twenty-four 
square feet, six bushels were picked. These were 
enjoyed by the family and distributed among the neigh- 
bors and friends, as were the vegetables. Two strips 
where the strawberries were last year were cultivated 




ONIONS FOR EXHIBIT 



so as to give the runners room. The best of the plants 
that were torn up were used to set a small patch, thus 
making a new bed for next year. This method would 
not be advisable were the bed weedy. In order to 
insure a continuous crop the land must be kept rich. 

Late peas were planted where spinach formerly 
grew and corn has taken the place of the first peas. 
Corn was of good flavor and size. Occasional appear- 



GOOD FARM GARDENS 55 

ances of smut have been picked off, no better method 
presenting itself. 

Onions sold for a good price. One-half bushel 
were selected and sent to the county fair at Greenfield. 
A premium of two dollars was awarded them. Two 
mammoth squashes, weighing seventy-five pounds 
apiece, were in the garden September 30. 

Having all the vegetables our family could eat, 
selling some and giving away, my experience has 
proven that with the best tools and fertilizers and a 
careful method of cultivation, an enjoyable and profit- 
able garden will be the result. 

Most of the peas were soaked for twenty-four 
hours before sowing and came up two days sooner 
than those not soaked. The wheel cultivator was used 
two weeks later, throwing the dirt from the rows. 

The ground was not firmed after planting the 
seed, as Mr. Campbell believes the loose soil prevents 
excessive evaporation and assists the seeds to come 
up quickly. 

The Woodruff Prize Garden. — Some look upon 
the home garden as merely a plot of ground in which 
to grow vegetables to eat — a place that produces a few 
good things through lots of backache, sore fingers and 
weeds. Others see in the garden a place for study and 
recreation, and the drudgery of planting, weeding and 
hoeing becomes a pleasure. A man of the latter type 
is Charles Pierson Augur of New Haven county, Con- 
necticut, who won the first special prize for the best 
report of a garden planted with Woodruff's seeds. His 
garden comprised four-fifths of an acre and returned 
eighty-nine dollars and seventy-one cents profit over 
and above expenses. 

The soil was a heavy loam underlaid with slate, 
and the garden was divided into two plots, one lying 
to the south and west on an incline and the other at 



56 PRIZE GARDENING 

the foot of the slope on nearly level ground. It was 
in fair condition as to fertility, as each year previously 
for five years some ten cords per acre of stable manure 
had been applied, and on the greater portion there 
had been used from six hundred to one thousand 
pounds per acre of complete fertilizer. The usual 
hand tools found on every farm were used and in addi- 
tion a seed drill and wheel hoe. Not only were all the 
commoner vegetables planted, but many of those not 
usually found in farmers' gardens, such as egg plant, 
cauliflower, kale, kohl-rabi, melons and salsify, and 
everything in great abundance and variety. Such 
extensive plantings were made for the sake of succes- 
sion and for testing the different varieties. Brief notes 
were kept of everything, so that the test notes are of 
much value for reference and as a guide for future 
planting. 

No fancy business was attempted with this gar- 
den. It was such as any farmer can have. It not only 
returned a large amount of the best kind of food, 
but a surplus for sale. From the time the first radishes 
were ripe in early June there was never a day when 
the garden did not give enough of something for a 
meal for a large family. The work of caring for the 
garden was done at odd spells, and it was done and not 
neglected. An hour or two at morning or night with 
the wheel hoe would cultivate a large space while the 
weeds were small, and frequent cultivation kept the 
ground clean and the crops growing in a season of 
almost unprecedented drouth. 

A Practical Success. — A decidedly business-like 
and profitable farm garden of one and five-eighths 
acres is described by W. K. Cole, Middlesex county, 
Massachusetts, eighth Rawson prize winner. His 
idea, as he states, was to show from actual experience 
what may be done by an ordinary farmer with the 



GOOD FARM GARDENS 57 

usual tools under average conditions on a common 
farm. The soil varied from dark, heavy loam to very 
light gravel. Most of the crops were fertilized with 
barn manure with some fertilizer added. There were 
corn, peas, beans, cabbage, cauliflower, squash, pota- 
toes, beets and tomatoes. The methods employed were 
not unusual, but were liberal and thorough. His 
account describes each crop. 

Tomatoes on light soil, fairly manured, received 
also two handfuls of fertilizer per hill at setting, also 
one-fifth pound nitrate of soda after fruit was formed. 
Sold thirty-five bushels for twenty dollars and sixty- 
eight cents besides eight or ten bushels wasted for lack 
of market. Cost of crop, fifteen dollars and eighty- 
eight cents ; profit, four dollars and eighty cents. 

One-fifth of an acre planted to Early Essex sweet 
corn with four hundred pounds fertilizer appeared 
to stand the drouth very well, although on dry run-out 
land. A trace of the corn took a two-dollar prize at 
the county fair, and the crop of forage was very heavy. 
Corn and forage were valued at thirty -three dollars and 
seventy-eight cents ; cost, sixteen dollars and thirty 
cents ; profit, seventeen dollars and forty-eight cents. 

Early Roberts potato, four square rods, proved 
earliest of all varieties tried and yielded six bushels. 
Rural Blush gave a light yield. Rural New Yorker 
and Carmen No. 3 gave large yields of large, smooth, 
late-keeping potatoes, but were outyielded by old 
kinds like Clark's No. 1, Beauty of Hebron, Pearl of 
Savoy. The potatoes won eight premiums at the Essex 
county fair. 

Writes Mr. Cole: I believe in liberal manuring, 
deep planting, level cultivation, light seeding, prompt 
application of bug juice and early digging. I cut the 
seed one eye to the piece, drop in furrows six inches 
deep and ten inches apart in the furrow and turn in 



58 PRIZE GARDENING 

soil enough to cover the seed, using the horse hoe, then 
strew fertilizer in the furrow and fill up even with the 
horse hoe. Go over the piece, if wet, with brush, har- 
row if very dry ; use a roller or smoother, loaded, to 
firm down the earth. This piece was manured at the 
rate of six cords per acre plowed in. I used fertilizer 
at the rate of about one thousand two hundred pounds 
per acre. 

Early cabbage, nine and one-half square rods, set 
out May I, and given a handful of fertilizer, with 
another handful hoed in later, yielded twenty barrels. 
Income, twenty-five dollars and sixty cents ; cost, six- 
teen dollars and seventy-five cents ; net, eight dollars 
and eighty-five cents. Seventeen square rods of early 
peas produced about fifty bushels at a cost of twenty- 
eight dollars and seventy-eight cents and selling for 
fifty dollars and seventy-five cents. 

About one-sixth acre was planted to Mohawk, 
Golden Eye Wax, Goddard and Imperial Horticultural 
beans, the first planting of Mohawk April 26. They 
were cultivated three times and hoed once. Shell beans 
were more profitable than string. Horticultural were 
five days earlier than other shell beans. The whole 
crop, forty-eight bushels, brought forty-nine dollars 
and eight cents at cost of twenty-nine dollars and 
forty-five cents. Profit, nineteen dollars and sixty- 
three cents. 

Cabbages, one-ninth acre, with six dollars worth 
manure and two dollars worth fertilizer, were set May 
5, cultivated four times and hoed three times and gave 
fifty-four barrels and an income of sixty-one dollars 
and forty-two cents at cost of twenty-eight dollars and 
ninety-five cents. Net, thirty-two dollars and forty- 
seven cents. Red cabbage proved most profitable and 
Savoy least profitable. A similar area of cauliflower 
brought fifty-one dollars and seven cents at cost of 



6o PRIZE GARDENING 

thirty-seven dollars and seventy-three cents. With 
both of the above crops nitrate of soda was hoed in 
during cultivation. Winter squashes, planted June 20, 
did fairly well for so late, being a second crop after 
beans and peas. 

Total income of the garden was four hundred and 
eighty-seven dollars and fourteen cents ; manure, 
eighty-four dollars and forty-four cents ; seed and 
plants, fourteen dollars and eighty-five cents ; labor, 
one hundred and ninety-two dollars and seventy-five 
cents ; interest and taxes, two dollars and twenty-eight 
cents ; total cost, two hundred and ninety-four dollars 
and thirty-two cents ; net, one hundred and ninety-two 
dollars and eighty-two cents. 

A Busy Farmers Garden. — " A busy farmer can 
have a good garden if he will only make the effort," 
says Oscar R. Widmer, one of the successful contest- 
ants, whose kitchen garden plot, eighty-nine by one 
hundred and twenty feet in size, produced thirty-two 
dollars and twelve cents worth of vegetables at a cost 
of sixteen dollars and ninety cents for labor, seed and 
fertilizer. The garden was of a gravelly loam, lying 
on an eastern slope, and prior to 1890 it was in grass. 
Then for four years it was planted to corn and since 
1894 has been used as a garden. The rows were 
laid out the long w r ay of the plot so as to permit of 
horse cultivation, and no hand work in consequence 
was done. 

Mr. Widmer adds : "As soon as possible after 
planting, the cultivator is started to 'nip the weeds in 
the bud' as it were. This does away with the tedious 
hand weeding that must be done where the garden is 
small and located in some out-of-the-way corner. The 
work is mostly done in leisure moments and is a source 
of great pleasure, irrespective of profit." At the begin- 
ning of operations there were growing in the garden 



GOOD FARM GARDENS 6l 

four rows of strawberries, one and one-half rows of 
currants and half a row of raspberries. The currants 
gave ninety-six quarts, while the others were just com- 
ing into bearing. 

Instead of using brush or poultry netting for peas, 
a trellis was made by driving heavy posts at each end 
of the row and stretching No. 12 wire at top and bot- 
tom. The end posts were well braced and lighter 
posts put in every eight or ten feet. Common grocers' 
twine was woven from the top to the bottom wire and 
the vines clung to this. After plowing, the garden 
was top-dressed with stable manure and thoroughly 
harrowed to mix and fine the soil and manure. Then 
the clod crusher was used to smooth and level the sur- 
face, after which it was marked off in rows as straight 
as possible, two feet four inches apart. The Planet 
Jr seed drill was used for sowing and planting every- 
thing but corn and potatoes, which were dropped by 
hand and covered with a common hoe. 

The first planting was done May 4, when onion 
sets, peas and beans were put in, followed the next 
day by plantings of lettuce, radish, beets, carrots, kohl- 
rabi, turnips, rutabaga, sage and potatoes. There were 
also raised cucumbers, squash, sweet corn, celery, 
tomatoes, peppers and cabbage. The illustration gives 
a good idea of the way vegetables will grow if they 
receive a little work at the right time. 

Hozv to Raise the Most Possible from a garden 
patch forty by fifty feet was the problem before W. P. 
Gray, Westchester county, New York, a five-dollar 
prize winner. He tried to solve it by planting some 
very late second crops, but concludes that another year 
he would plant nothing after August 1, and thinks late 
planted peas and beans do not pay. He used two loads 
of manure and two hundred pounds fertilizer. The 
garden was cultivated with a wheel hoe. The yield 



62 PRIZE GARDENING 

was five bushels beets, twenty-five quarts peas, two 
and one-fourth bushels beans, twenty quarts turnips, 
twenty-two quarts carrots and two dollars and ten 
cents worth of lettuce and parsley, the total value being 
fifteen dollars and ninety-eight cents. The crop was 
produced at a loss of about eight dollars, largely 
because of labor with unsuccessful second crops. The 
labor bill alone amounted to eleven dollars and twenty- 
one cents. 

About One-third of an Acre in eastern Massachu- 
setts, entered by L. E. Burnham, won a five-dollar 
Rawson special. The surplus produce was sold to 
summer cottagers, amounting to one-half the total 
value. Income, sixty-one dollars and sixty-nine cents ; 
cost, forty-three dollars and forty-seven cents; profit, 
eighteen dollars and twenty-two cents. This is his 
first garden, and he thinks he could do better by deep 
plowing and more liberal manuring. The garden was 
planted in straight rows with a good assortment and 
constant succession of standard vegetables. The value 
of labor at fifteen cents per hour amounted to twelve 
dollars and twenty cents for eighty-one and one-fourth 
hours, a sum only two-thirds the receipts for surplus 
products. There was about two weeks' work in May, 
one in June, one in July, two in August and two in 
September. Not beginning to plant until May I, and 
doing practically all the cultivating with a wheel hoe, 
the very important item of labor was much reduced. 
It would seem that any farmer might well spare eight 
days to be thus repaid, both in cash and in garden food. 



CHAPTER V 

THE HOME ACRE 

A good garden is a source of pride, delight and 
money profit to many a person whom circumstance or 
inclination does not impel to make gardening a leading 
specialty. In many cases only a small area is planted 
and the produce all used on the home table. Others 
have a surplus for sale or gift. Many of these home 
gardens entered in the contest were remarkable for 
careful methods and for admirable results. 

High Grade Gardening. — A garden conspicuous 
for the high grade of its products and a winner at the 
country fairs was managed by L. E. Dimock of Con- 
necticut, and the account received fifth prize. The 
soil was sandy loam, southeastern slope, had been six 
years in grass. Farm manure of various kinds was 
freely used. Deep, thorough tillage, frequent cultiva- 
tion and the use of mulch were features of the system 
followed. Seeds were usually soaked before planting. 
Mulch was often used. Following are some of Mr. 
Dimock's gardening principles : 

Select a plot of ground that has been down in grass 
for a number of years, as weeds "are less troublesome 
than in a piece that has been under cultivation. The 
soil should be preferably a sandy loam. It should 
have a gradual slope to the south that the sun's rays 
may strike it more direct and also be sheltered in a 
measure from the cool north winds. The first plow- 
ing should be done in September of the year previous, 
and to the greatest depth possible, as deep-tilled land 
suffers much less from drouth. Stable manure spread 



64 PRIZE GARDENING 

broadcast at the rate of twelve cords per acre and 
thoroughly worked into the soil to its full depth causes 
the plants to send their roots deep down and thereby 
gather moisture and nourishment in a dry time. 

Deep cross plowing and harrowing after the 
manure has been spread thoroughly mixes the manure 
and soil and gives better results than manuring in the 
hill and saves a great amount of labor. The rows 
should run north and south if the lay of the land will 
warrant it. Hills near together and rows wide apart 
let in the sun's rays and give a better opportunity for 




MR. AND MRS. DIMOCK 



horse cultivation. Frequent cultivation makes the 
crops grow fast and in a dry season is good irrigation. 
Cultivating and hoeing in the early morning when the 
dew is on is far preferable to doing it in the heat of 
the day. 

All the common vegetables were grown, and 
receipts comprise numerous items, of which the largest 
are forty dollars for cabbages, seventeen dollars for 
melons and thirteen dollars for beets. Total income 
from the quarter acre, one hundred and seventy-six 
dollars and twenty-one cents, of which eighty-five dol- 



THE HOME ACRE 65 

lars and ten cents was profit. The aid of Mrs. Dimock 
was evidently of great value in the care of the garden. 
Their photographs are shown herewith. As Mr. 
Dimock writes, both are " fifty-five years of age and 
enjoy good health." The vegetables received much 
favorable comment through the press and otherwise 
wherever exhibited. 

The land was in old sod and was plowed deeply, 
harrowed and rolled, and then cross plowed, harrowed 
and rolled twice before planting. Three cords of 
stable manure were put on and worked in and some 
hen manure and fertilizer were used in the drill for 
some crops. The rows were made wide apart and the 
hills near together to allow of horse cultivation and 
the sun to get in among the plants. Twenty-one kinds 
and thirty-four varieties of vegetables were grown, 
largely for home use, but a considerable surplus was 
sold. As Mr. Dimock is quite extensively engaged in 
poultry raising he grew a large number of cabbage 
and sold nearly twelve thousand young plants. 

The methods employed in growing some of the 
crops were quite out of the usual line, but gave very 
satisfactory returns. Thus, in growing melons, the 
earth was excavated to a depth of two feet and three 
feet in diameter and the hole filled with rotted cow 
and horse manure and a liberal supply of hen manure 
mixed thoroughly with the soil. Ten seeds, after 
being soaked for thirty-six hours, were planted in each 
hill and covered two inches deep. A box two feet 
square and twelve inches deep, with top and bottom 
removed, was placed over each hill and left until the 
vines were ready to run. This protected the plants 
from chilling winds and they grew very fast. Two 
vines only were allowed in each hill and two melons 
to each vine, the rest being picked off and the ends of 
the vines pricked after the melons had set. Twelve 







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THE HOME ACRE 67 

hills gave forty-eight melons which weighed from 
thirty to forty pounds each. 

In planting potatoes Mr. Dimock proceeded as 
follows : May 23, opened two drills with plow six 
inches deep and three feet apart. Hen manure spread 
in the drill. Drills spaced off eighteen inches apart 
and three pieces of potato with two eyes on a piece 
were placed four inches apart around the center of 
each mark, eyes up. In cutting the potatoes nothing 
but large ones were used. The potato was first cut 
crosswise near the center ; the eye end is used for cook- 
ing and the root end is cut in pieces of two eyes each. 
The potatoes are cut ten days before planting and 
spread on a floor in a light place. This causes the 
cut to dry or sear over and the sprout will slowly start. 

This method gives strong and healthy stalks, 
and such stalks are the ones that produce first-class 
potatoes. Experimenting with the seed and the root 
end, with the same treatment the row planted from 
the root end produced one-fourth more potatoes and of 
much larger size. A preparation called " Bug Death " 
is far superior to paris green for the potato bug. One 
application when the dew is on is enough for the sea- 
son, as it adheres tenaciously to the vine. One-half 
peck of potatoes planted as above yielded five hundred 
and fifty-two pounds at harvest. 

The garden was a highly profitable one in many 
ways. Mr. Dimock made a large exhibit of vegetables 
at his local fair and captured first prize. The prod- 
ucts from this quarter acre, sold and consumed, were 
valued at one hundred and forty-six dollars and 
twenty-one cents, while the cost for labor, seed and 
fertilizer to produce them was sixty-one dollars and 
eleven cents, leaving the handsome profit of eighty- 
five dollars and ten cents. The home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Dimock is a typical Connecticut homestead. There is 



THE HOME ACRE 69 

a large commodious house with ell, a barn forty by 
seventy feet, with eighteen- foot posts and a nine-foot 
basement, and a poultry house twelve by one hundred 
and forty feet, divided in ten-foot sections. Each pen 
contains twenty fowls and the house, which has an 
alley at the back, is built in a unique manner. The 
farm contains one hundred acres and is pleasantly 
situated. 

The Garden of a Hustler. — Accounts of gardens 
in the semi-arid parts of the prairie states show that 
a good supply of vegetables can be produced without 
irrigation, although the drawbacks are considerable. 
One of the best gardens under such conditions is 
described by A. T. Giauque, Nebraska, third regular 
prize winner. His plot of less than one-seventh acre 
gave him produce worth about forty-two dollars, from 
which his expenses, excluding such items as photo- 
graphs, etc., pertaining exclusively to the contest, left 
him a profit of twenty dollars and fifty-four cents. 
The illustration shows the garden and homestead with 
Mr. and Mrs. Giauque on duty among the vegetables. 
Their several assistants are seen in the carriage and 
the doorway of the house. Besides the garden, the 
Giauque family managed two hundred and seventy- 
seven acres of farm crops, with the help of a hired man. 

The fresh prairie soil was so rich that manure was 
not wanted. The plot was enclosed with woven slat 
fencing at a cost of twenty dollars. Soil was made 
very fine with harrow and rake. Cultivation was 
thorough and frequent, much of the work being done 
with wheel hoes. This thorough and frequent culture 
seems to be the main difference between Mr. Giauque's 
garden and the numerous unsuccessful gardens of 
the dry regions. 

Writing June 1, 1901, Mr. Giauque says: I 
mulched strawberries, parsnips, grapevines and shrub- 



THE HOME ACRE 7 1 

bery with rye straw last winter, and I now have a 
rank crop of rye to contend with. Corn fodder or 
prairie hay would be better. 

I have learned that wire netting for a garden 
fence is a delusion and a snare. 

I am convinced that a person, if the department 
of agriculture persists in flooding him with free seeds, 
would better burn than to plant them. 

Planted in Long Rows. — A large and productive 
home garden was described by Miss Edith Holton, 
Vermont. One acre of a newly set orchard was 
dressed with five cords manure and six dollars worth 
of fertilizer. The soil was excellent for a dry season, 
being strong, heavy and inclined to wetness in spots. 
The garden and trees were hoed five times and culti- 
vated three or four times. Value of produce was one 
hundred and twenty-six dollars and fifty-three cents, 
of which the largest items were thirty-three dollars 
for fifty-five bushels early potatoes and forty dollars 
for one hundred bushels turnips. The account 
received a five-dollar award. Writes Miss Holton: 

I would especially recommend the system of 
planting everything in long rows so that garden and 
field products can be cultivated at one time. Plants 
of various kinds can be set between the garden rows 
at the last cultivation, so that no space is lost. I like 
also the plan of planting squashes among early pota- 
toes, although they are somewhat in the way when 
digging potatoes. Striped bugs and squash bugs do 
not trouble so much and they get along out of the 
way of early frost. 

A Small Farm Garden entered by Dora Dietrick, 
Pennsylvania, received one of the regular five-dollar 
prizes. Receipts were ninety-five dollars and seventy- 
two cents. Cost, twenty-two dollars and twenty-five 
cents. The seed bed was somewhat unusual for a 














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THE HOME ACRE 73 

farm, being intermediate between a hotbed and cold 
frame. The ground inside was shoveled out and four 
or five inches well-rotted barnyard manure put in and 
covered with three inches of rich soil. Sash were put 
on two days before planting, to warm the soil. Plants 
of cabbage, tomato, lettuce, pepper, cauliflower and 
cucumber were started in this bed. The work of this 
garden was done by women and the produce sold by 
them to customers on their butter route. Area of gar- 
den was about one-fourth acre. 






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A GARDEN IN LONG ROWS 

A Very Luxuriant Home Garden was reported by 
Miss Barbara Brown, Indiana, receiving a prize of 
five dollars. The location was the site of an old poultry 
house and had also been used for a chip yard, making 
a very porous, fertile soil. The area is about three thou- 
sand square feet and one load of manure was applied 
the preceding winter. The contestant did all the work 
but plowing and manuring. Flowers were grown 
along the fence borders, sweet peas and vines being 
trained to the fences. The value of products was 



74 PRIZE GARDENING 

ten dollars and forty-live cents ; expenses, five dollars 
and four cents. Miss Brown considered the work 
very enjoyable. 

A Good Garden was kept by Mrs. G. F. McCluer, 
Mississippi, and the account received one of the smaller 
awards. Vegetables enough were sold from the three- 
fourths acre to just about balance the cost of labor and 
supplies, leaving as net profit what vegetables were 
used by the family. Total income was sixty-three 
dollars and thirty-four cents, and cost twenty-one dol- 
lars and seventy-eight cents. The land was valued at 
fifteen dollars. Labor was also cheap ; five cents per 
hour for man, four cents for woman, two and one- 
half cents for boys and ten cents for teams. Among 
the most satisfactory crops were potatoes, sweet corn, 
melons and cucumbers. Planting began March I, but 
the date proved too early for a backward season. The 
first freeze came November i, making what would 
seem to a northern gardener a very long growing 
season. 

Fruit and Vegetables were abundant in the prize 
garden of John Tye, Minnesota, and yielded him prod- 
uce worth ninety-seven dollars and fifty-one cents at a 
cost of thirty-three dollars and two cents, the area 
being about one-fifth of an acre. The ordinary gar- 
den tools were used and a wheel hoe. The land seems 
well suited to fruit. One of the illustrations in Chap- 
ter XVI shows a child holding a prolific branch of 
currants which had been accidentally broken off. An- 
other view herewith shows the thrifty bushes growing 
beside the fence, the new growth having been cut back 
about a foot to increase fruitfulness. To drive off 
currant worms, hellebore was dusted on through a 
homemade shaker made from a can with holes punched 
in the bottom, using one-half pound hellebore to one 
quart flour. A mixture of insect powder and helle- 



THE HOME ACRE 75 

bore was an effective dose for cabbage worms, taking 
of each substance equal parts and diluting with four 
times the bulk of flour. 

A Home Farm Garden which yielded the family 
supply of fruit and green stuff at a net profit of thirty- 
nine dollars and eighty-eight cents was described by 
A. P. Hitchcock of New York. This grower was for- 
tunate in having little trouble with insects or drouth. 
Five hills of cucumbers yielded over three bushels, 




A GARDEN SITE IN THE MINNESOTA FOREST 

mostly of pickling size. Every cabbage, of which 
there were five varieties, made a head, and from forty- 
five cauliflower plants there were forty-seven heads, 
as some of the stumps sent out a second crop of sprouts. 
Strawberries and other fruits were the most 
important products of the Rawson five-dollar prize 
garden described by C. R. Knapp, Connecticut. Oper- 
ations were conducted at a loss, owing to rather heavy 
charges for labor at twenty cents per hour, and to the 
fact that the bearing strawberry bed was an old one, 



7 6 



PRIZE GARDENING 



while the new-set beds were not yet in bearing-. Mr. 
Knapp works in a shop from half-past six to six 
.o'clock, and tends his garden evenings and holidays. 
Income was one hundred and seventy-nine dollars and 
twenty-five cents. Cost, one hundred and ninety-three 
dollars and eighteen cents. Loss, thirteen dollars and 
ninety-three cents. 




MR. TYE'S CURRANT BUSHES AND LATE TURNIPS 

A Natural Garden. — One of the few eastern con- 
testants not complaining of injury from dry weather 
was C. E. Lord of Connecticut, whose garden was on 
light, rich loam, a level spot forty feet below the brow 
of a hill. Subsoil was gravelly. The garden was evi- 
dently one of nature's choice locations ; fertile, springy, 
valley land, but naturally well drained. Crops grew 
to perfection and some took premiums at the county 
fair. From the fifteen hundred square feet Mr. Lord 
took vegetables worth ten dollars and eighty-one cents, 
sold at retail prices, but with the liberal discount of 



THE HOME ACRE 



77 



thirty per cent charged off for selling. Expenses were 
heavy, the work being mostly done by hand tools. For 
fertilizer was used a barrel of ashes and night soil 
valued at two dollars and twenty cents. Total cost, 
seven dollars and ninety-five cents. The account 
received a five-dollar award. 

A Farm Garden Patch of less than half an acre 
returned Charles Coolidge of New York, a Bowker 




SOME OF MR. TYE'S CROPS AND TOOLS 

five-dollar prize winner, the sum of forty-five dollars 
and seventy-nine cents at a cost of twenty-four dollars 
and fifty-nine cents. In addition, Mr. Coolidge thinks 
the land was put in condition to yield twice as much 
the following year. It could be made more profitable, 
he says, by putting in what one thinks would sell best 
in the local market. He believes also that the land 
should have been plowed in the fall and replowed 
in spring. 



CHAPTER VI 

ON HIGH-PRICED LAND 

Gardeners in town or city are handicapped by 
scarcity of good land and suitable labor, but their 
advantages in the direction of ready markets, plenty of 
manure and comparative isolation from insects and 
other pests, have often enabled them to show a hand- 
some profit. Some of the most successful and best 
paying gardens entered in the contest were in towns 
or suburbs, or even on city house lots. 

A City Man's Garden. — One of these gardens, 
which made a good showing on high-priced land, was 
described by Mr. J. B. Hauck of Suffolk county, Mas- 
sachusetts, a prominent prize winner and a gentleman 
who has made amateur gardening his study for years. 
The plot of ground upon which was the garden was 
bought fifteen years ago at a cost of ten cents per 
square foot. It is located upon a commanding site in 
one of the suburbs of Boston. The garden is divided 
in two parts, separated by a street. On the terrace 
are planted twelve varieties of grapes, which are being 
trained over an arbor. Scattered about the place are 
apple, pear, plum, peach, apricot, cherry, chestnut and 
mulberry trees which are just coming into bearing, 
and have great promise. 

The lower garden comprises four thousand six 
hundred and fifty square feet, most of which has been 
cultivated by Mr. Hauck for thirteen years, who says : 
" It is still my hobby, my pride. It is situated on a 
gentle, sunny slope, gaining all the moisture from the 
hill above. The soil is dark, mellow and rich, with a 



ON HIGH-PRICED LAND 



79 



clay bottom, and through years of cultivation almost 
free from stones and noxious weeds." The tools used 
comprised a lot of miscellaneous garden implements, 
and a seed drill and a combined wheel hoe and 
cultivator. 

" I believe in raising as many different varieties of 
vegetables as my limited space permits. It has been 



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A WELL-ARRANGED HOUSE-LOT 



customary with me for several years to use barnyard 
manure and fertilizers alternately, so in November, 
1898, after clearing the garden, a good layer of manure 
and an application of lime were plowed under. 

" Every inch of ground is utilized. As soon as one 
crop disappears another one makes its appearance and 



80 PRIZE GARDENING 

takes its place. This enables me to always have some- 
thing new for the table and plenty of it." Water was 
supplied for irrigation during dry weather, by rigging 
up an old rotary pump and hose and connecting with 
the cistern. Bordeaux mixture was used for spraying 
tomatoes, beans and other plants to prevent rust and 
blight, and a little paris green was added to it for pota- 
toes. Freedom from cutworms was attributed to the 
use of lime and plowing in the fall, as an adjoining 
garden was badly troubled. A row of old bean vines 
were left as bait for green worms, and cabbage plants 
planted near by escaped. Squash vine borers were 
removed with a knife by cutting open the vine, length- 
wise, where they appeared. The vine was then care- 
fully bandaged with a wet rag and a fair yield obtained. 
The bordeaux-paris green mixture used on potatoes 
proved fatal to egg plants, but hellebore proved quite 
satisfactory for keeping off the potato bugs. 

One hotbed, three by six feet, was used in which 
to start the seeds of early vegetables. Plantings were 
made in the open ground as soon as the weather per- 
mitted and were continued at intervals throughout the 
season whenever there was a vacant spot in the garden. 
The following varieties of vegetables, mostly in five 
and ten-cent packets, were planted : Pole and wax 
beans, beets, borecole, kale, cabbage, carrots, cauli- 
flower, celery, celeriac, corn, cucumber, corn salad, 
endive, egg plant, kohl-rabi, lettuce, muskmelon, onions, 
peppers, peas, salsify, radish, spinach, squash, tomato, 
turnip, rutabagas, escarole, chives, shallot, parsley, 
sweet and Irish potatoes and nearly a dozen different 
kinds of sweet herbs. 

The garden was planted as shown by the cuts. 
In the larger garden tomatoes followed peas, turnips 
the wax beans, early lettuce for fall use took the place 
of Refugee beans. Corn salad succeeded lettuce. The 



ON HIGH-PRICED LAND 8l 

spinach was followed by cabbage, while turnips, beets, 
carrots, celery and spinach gave a second crop in the 
plot occupied by Gradus peas and Emperor William 
beans. Winter radishes came after Telephone peas, 
Paris Golden celery was planted in between the hills 
of Stowell's Evergreen corn, and gave a good crop for 
home use without blanching. The plot of early corn 
was sown to turnips. The hotbed was used during 
the late fall and winter to store some of the hardy 
vegetables and the latter part of October there were 
placed in it some endive, escarole, celeriac, and the 
remaining space was filled up by transplanting leeks, 
chives and parsley. 

The value of the garden and the cost of the same 
are shown in the following table : 

INCOME 

Products for home use $54-24 

Products sold 65.75 

Products given away 11.36 

Plants sold 3.75 

Plants given away 3.45 



Total $138.55 

EXPENSES 

Plowing and harrowing $300 

Manure 2.00 

Seeds 10.00 

Insecticides 1.20 

Labor , 42.00 



Total $58.70 

Profit 79-85 

Mr. Hauck, who is retired, is an agricultural col- 
lege graduate and makes his garden his hobby. Owing 
to the effects of a sunstroke he is unable to do any 
work during the heat of the day and so works from 
daylight until sunrise, and from sunset until dark. He 
says : " The amount of pleasure and comfort I derive 





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ON HIGH-PRICED LAND 



83 



from my early rising- 1 never experienced before. The 
bracing and invigorating air soon proved very bene- 
ficial to my condition and I recovered and gained 
health and strength almost as fast as the crops grew 
in the gar-Jen." 

The First Prize Garden. — The winner of the first 
of the regular prizes, submitting an account hard to 
excel for clearness and discriminating completeness, 
gained his success under the severe handicaps of 





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SOME JULY PRIZE VEGETABLES 

broken health and the failure of important crops. Mr. 
B. S. Higley, Mahoning county, Ohio, is sixty-two 
years old, and disabled from practice as a lawyer by 
disease contracted in the civil war. Although able to 
perform but little work, he finds outdoor life good for 
his health. His garden is city building land of high 
valuation. The garden that year showed no profit; 
expenses of about one hundred and twenty dollars 
being offset by crops of practically the same value, 
but the lack of cash gain was not due to any lack of 



84 PRIZE GARDENING 

skill, intelligence and system on the owner's part. His 
methods with various crops are well worth noting: 

Starting Seeds. — I get wooden boxes about one 
foot square and three inches deep and bore holes in 
the bottom of each for drainage. I place a handful of 
small broken stones over each auger hole and then 
nearly fill the boxes with potting soil. Potting soil is 
prepared as follows : Every spring before filling my 
hotbeds with manure I place in the bottom of the 
smaller one layers of sods, grass side down, to the 
depth of ten to twelve inches. Over this I put fresh 
manure. In the fall I fork this over several times, 
then sift and barrel the entire contents and store in a 
dry place. This soil mixed with one-third sifted sand 
constitutes what I call potting soil. I use it for pot- 
ting bulbs or plants and for starting seeds that are 
not sown in the open ground. 

After filling the boxes nearly full with the potting 
soil, I firm and level the soil with a block or brick, so 
that the boxes are two-thirds full. Upon this I drop 
seed thinly in rows, each kind in a box by itself, tack- 
ing the seed envelope stating the name of the variety 
upon the edge of the box. Then I gently sift fine pot- 
ting soil over the seed, covering aster seed one-thirtv- 
second of an inch. Then I firm the soil again lightly. 
For watering I employ one of three methods, which- 
ever may be most convenient at the time. The first 
is to place the box in water not quite deep enough to 
run over the seed box. There the box remains until 
the soil is saturated up to the seed, when it is taken out 
and water drained off. The second way, after the soil 
is firmed, and before planting the seed, sprinkle over 
dry soil and do not firm at all. The third way, after 
the seed is sown and the soil firmed, place a coarse 
cloth over the box and sprinkle with water until the 
soil is moist. I fancy the second method the best, 



ON HIGH-PRICED LAND 



85 



since the first is likely to render the soil too wet, and 
the latter not wet enough. The seeds being planted 
and watered, the boxes are covered with panes of glass 
and put in my cold frame. I do it as a convenient way 
to protect the seeds and plants from any belated frosts. 
I never permit the soil to become dry, until the plants 
appear. Then I remove the glass, keep the boxes 



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GARDEN ARRANGEMENT OF A CITY BACK YARD 



clear of weeds, water regularly, and the plants grow 
like weeds. 

The foregoing directions apply to all seeds which 
one may desire to start in boxes, especially where one 
has no hotbed, the only change being the deepness 
of planting. The larger the seeds, the deeper they 
should be covered. 



86 PRIZE GARDENING 

Next year I propose to harrow with a homemade 
clod breaker drawn by horses. The implement will 
resemble a five by six-foot section of a roof, only the 
shingles will be two by ten-inch plank spiked upon 
two by four scantling. In use the lap side of the 
shingles is drawn against the clods, the driver riding 
on the breaker. For smoothing and leveling hitch the 
team on the other end. This will be done in the fore- 
noon, and I will put force enough on in the afternoon 
to finish any raking necessary thereafter. With the 
peculiar soil I have, this will make my garden as mel- 
low as a wood-ash heap. My experience is that such 
a condition of ground at the outstart means mellow, 
light soil the whole season, provided the soil gets 
prompt, regular and thorough cultivation thereafter. 
My land if left for twenty-four hours after harrowing 
is sure to be full of small lumps, which can only be 
broken by pounding. 

I have concluded to try using only artificial fer- 
tilizers on my garden in the future. I have to buy all 
my manures anyway. Such stable manure as I can 
get is not well rotted, and is so rich in tin cans, broken 
glass, crockery, and all manner of rubbish, all of which 
I must bury or hire hauled to the city dump, and is 
also impregnated with grass and weed seeds, that I 
am out of patience with the use of such manure. If I 
find that artificial fertilizers are insufficient of them- 
selves I will supplement them with crimson clover sown 
early in the fall and plowed under in the spring. 

The owner is the best laborer on garden or farm, 
or at least ought to be. Hired help lacks interest. 

I plant cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, egg plant, 
etc., in this way : With a slightly sharpened stick, an 
old broom handle for instance, I punch a hole six or 
eight inches deep. I insert the plant a trifle deeper 
than I propose to set it, then carefully fill the hole with 



ON HIGH-PRICED LAND 8j 

fine dry soil to within an inch of the surface. Then I 
very gently raise the plant one-half inch to adjust the 
tiny roots in the soil. I fill the hole with water, then 
complete the filling of the hole with the fine, dry soil, 
and firm hard. I never lose a plant from wilting; 
indeed, the growth is hardly checked. The secret of 
transplanting is a generous application of water to 
moisten the roots and compact the soil around them, 
and then to cover this wet soil with dry to hinder 
evaporation. 

I transplant tomatoes in this way : With a garden 
trowel I dig a trench an inch deep next the stake, 
and sloping from two to two and one-half inches at the 
end away from the stake ; trenches from six inches to a 
foot or more long, according to the size of the plants. 
I pinch off close to the stem all the leaves of the plant 
except those at the extreme end, lay the plant in the 
trench, top toward the stake, fill the trench half full of 
dry soil and pour in a half gill of water. As soon as 
this settles away, I fill the trench with dry soil and firm 
with my foot. Only three or four inches of the plant 
remains above the ground, the root and naked stem 
being buried. I prefer this way of planting because 
roots will shoot out all along the buried stem and thus 
give more root surface for the future support of the 
plant. I do not care for specially large, stocky plants. 
The plants set out to-day were not over eight 
inches long. 

I prefer to transplant late in the afternoon in very 
dry weather. Pour water into the trenches as 
described and covering with dry soil prevents evapo- 
ration of water applied to the roots. My plants never 
wilt and I never lose any from transplanting. My 
plants are taken directly from the hotbed and planted 
where they are to grow. I never transplant but once. 
I do not care for short, stocky plants ; long, spindling 



88 fRIZE GARDENING 

plants such as grow in a hotbed too thickly sown, 
answer my plan of planting better than short, stocky 
plants. No one succeeds better in all my circle of 
acquaintances in growing tomatoes than I do. 

I always trim tomatoes to one stalk and tie to 
stakes. The trimming consists in pinching or cutting 
off all branches. These branches start from the main 
stalk directly above the leaves. The fruit stems or 
branches start from the main stalk about midway 
between the leaves, and of course should not be cut 
off. Any shoots starting from the roots or near the 
ground must be removed. Grow strictly to one stalk. 
It is necessary to trim and tie four or five times during 
the season. Plants may grow five or six feet tall. 

When they reach the top of the stakes, cut off 
the end of the main stalk and permit no higher growth. 
By proper care in the work, tomato vines can be twined 
around the stakes and tied so as to keep every fruit 
stem and the fruit entirely away from the stakes. This 
is the best culture for tomatoes. They grow larger, 
ripen earlier and better than when grown in any other 
way. For poles I buy refuse oak strips from the 
planing mill, one by two inches, saw them in six-foot 
lengths, sharpen one end and drive the stakes solidly 
into the ground before planting the tomatoes. In the 
fall I pull up the stakes and store them away for the 
next season. Thus treated the stakes will last for 
several years. 

I am too lazy to work with any but sharp, bright 
tools. I never permit anyone besides myself to use 
any of my wheel hoe implements. As soon as any 
one of these is no longer in use, that particular imple- 
ment is taken to the storeroom, wiped clean with a 
rag and put in its place. This is done although that very 
same tool is to be taken out and returned several times 
in the same day. The same rule is invariably followed 



ON HIGH-PRICED LAND 89 

as to the use and care of every garden tool I own. 
They are never left lying about, never permitted to 
get wet and are wiped off carefully after each using 
of them. 

As no hired help can be trusted in this respect, 
I never fail at the close of each day to examine my 
collection of tools, hunting up any that are missing 
and cleaning such as need it. I cleaned all my wheel 
hoe implements thoroughly, greased the bright parts 
with bacon rind and stored away the whole in a dry 
place for the winter. I shall pursue exactly the same 
course with all my other garden tools as soon as I am 
through using them for the season. As a result I shall 
find everything in fine order for work the next spring. 
It is easier and cheaper to keep tools in good order in 
this way than it is to put them in order by hours of 
hard work when the tools are needed. 

To work with rusty, foul, dull tools nearly doubles 
the labor, besides hindering the progress of the job in 
hand. Besides, the tools last longer. I consider this 
matter one of great importance not only to the gar- 
dener, but to the farmer. With the average farmer 
the proper housing and caring for all his farming and 
harvesting implements, or leaving them to the mercy 
of the elements the livelong year, in the long run 
means a profit or loss in his farming operations. These 
things cost too much to be allowed to rust and rot 
through gross neglect. I am giving this lecture regard- 
less of the objections of the implement manufacturers. 
They, doubtless, will say if all follow my example their 
trade would fall off. Of course it would ; but you and 
I are not working for the manufacturers, unless we 
neglect our tools, in which case we serve them for 
nothing and board ourselves as well. 



CHAPTER VII 

SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY 

One of the most profitable small gardens was at 
Darlington, Maryland, where a little patch of about 
one-third of an acre yielded Alfred P. Edge produce 
worth two hundred and seventy-one dollars and thirty- 
nine cents at a cost of forty-five dollars and sixteen 
cents, and secured him the second Allen prize, fifty 
dollars in gold. 

The summary of this wonderful little garden is 
worth itemizing: Labor cost twenty-nine dollars and 
thirty-eight cents ; manure, four dollars ; seeds, three 
dollars and ninety cents ; rent of land and of tools, 
seven dollars and eighty-eight cents ; total cost, forty- 
five dollars and sixteen cents. The manure was mostly 
that of sheep and obtained at one dollar per load. 
Manuring was evidently not extreme and the value of 
the crops seems owing to good management in various 
directions, as will appear in the extracts following, 
taken from Mr. Edge's very readable account. His 
notes on garden irrigation, with illustrations, appear 
in the chapter on that subject: 

I always have piles of old leaves, weeds, chaff, 
in fact anything I can find of this sort. I follow the 
plow and fork this material into the furrow and when 
the plow comes around again it is covered. This plan 
followed up will change the worst clay soil into just 
what is wanted. 

Instead of permanent hotbeds, I dig a hole in the 
most convenient place in my garden, fill it with manure 
and pack it down, then set my box without any 



SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY 



91 



bottom on the manure, put on some fine soil, bank up 
the earth around the outside, put on the sash, and my 
hotbed is ready. When I am through with it I take 
up my box and sash and put them under cover until 
next year. I have four such boxes about four feet 




CELERY BOARDED READY FOR BLEACHING 



square in which I start eg-g plant, lettuce, tomatoes, 
cabbage, etc. In the center of one box I usually sow 
a hill of cucumbers and when the glass and box are 
no longer needed I take them away and my cucumbers 



92 



PRIZE GARDENING 



cover the ground around and bear nearly all summer. 
One great advantage of this bed is, when my plants 
grow tall enough to touch the glass I simply raise the 
box higher and bank up more earth outside. 

When we lived in the city and wanted anything 
for our next meal we left an order at the store and 
there the matter ended. Here we must plan far ahead 




GRAPEVINE WITH BAGS ON FRUIT 



or go without. The garden is planned bearing in 
mind the fact that there are in each year one thousand 
and ninety-five meals to be provided for. 

After tea I put bags on sixty bunches of grapes. 
My custom has been for several years to bag most of 
my grapes. I do not suppose it would pay to do it for 



SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY 



93 



market, but it certainly does pay for home use, where 
you want the best you can get. Bagged bunches are 
much finer, as anyone can easily prove by taking two 
bunches side by side, one bagged, the other not. The 
bagged bunch will ripen more evenly, have more bloom 
and be better every way, excepting it may possibly be 
a few days later in ripening, neither do the birds and 
wasps disturb it. Thin-skinned varieties like the Con- 




TYPICAL LANDSCAPE OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY 



cord are very much better. Anyone who tries bag- 
ging I am sure will never give it up. I buy at the 
store two-pound bags such as grocers use; these bags 
last me two years and only cost a few cents per hun- 
dred. A paper of pins are also required. One year 
I tied the tops of the bags, but that takes too long. I 
simply slip the bag over the bunch, make a double fold 



94 PRIZE GARDENING 

of the top, stick a pin through and there the bag 
remains until the grapes are ripe. I intended to make 
some muslin bags this year, but did not get it done in 
time. The grapes should be bagged when they are 
about the size of small shot, but later will do. The 
larger they are the more trouble it is to bag them. 

I never bank up my celery ; late in the season I 
prop twelve-inch boards outside the whole bed. My 
bed is one mass of plants, and if the ground is rich 
and they are given enough water the celery is fine ; 
but these two things are absolutely necessary. Whfci 
freezing weather comes I dig up my plants, leaving 
some earth around the roots, and take them to my 
cellar, where I have a room closed off from the rest 
of the cellar with a window opening under the porch. 
This window I open or close, according to the weather, 
and being under the porch it does not let in much light. 
The plants I stand upon the floor and cover the roots 
with about three inches of sand. The sand is kept in 
place by pieces of scantling placed on the floor. I 
make the beds about one and one-half feet wide with 
a passageway between each bed. This sand I always 
keep moist. It is important to moisten only the roots, 
if water is poured on the stalks and leaves they will 
rot. I have a pipe with a wide opening at the top like 
a funnel, this I push down to the roots and pour water 
through it. My celery is accessible all winter, in the 
worst of weather, and it keeps on growing; of course 
the room is dark and it bleaches nicely. I avoid all 
heavy work of trucking and banking up, and raise 
more than twice as much celery on the same ground, 
so of course can afford to make the ground very rich. 

I have trouble making my lima beans climbs up the 
poles. One of my neighbors tells me I planted in the 
wrong sign of the moon. All I can say is, I will get 
them up the pole in spite of all the moons discovered 



SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY 95 

and undiscovered. Query? How do they ever get 
beans planted on the planet Jupiter where there are so 
many moons? 

Most birds should be made welcome by every 
gardener, especially the house wren. I have boxes 
and cans up all around my garden and generally they 
are all filled. The amount of insects these little fellows 
destroy cannot be counted. A very simple way to pre- 
vent the English sparrow from getting possession of 
the box is to suspend the box by a short chain of about 
two links so it will swing a little. If the box moves 
an English sparrow will not light on it, not so the 
wrens. Our bluebirds, thanks to the sparrows, are a 
thing of the past. 

One of the Best Suburban Gardens was that of 
Frank J. Bell of New Jersey, whose report won the 
third prize of fifty dollars. His report was beautifully 
illustrated and a marvel of neatness and accuracy of 
all the details incident to the work of planting and 
harvesting the crops, etc. Brief excerpts from it, and 
the accompanying diagram, will show that the space 
was well utilized and that the methods employed were 
such as to give the greatest returns for labor expended. 
Like hundreds of city workers, Mr. Bell has a small 
place which is sufficient to supply his family with an 
abundance of fruit and vegetables. Mr. Bell writes 
interestingly of his garden venture : 

My business keeps me occupied at a desk in a 
nearby city and away from home from eight until five, 
so that most of my work was done of necessity between 
four and seven in the morning. The plowing, spading 
and some of the rougher work I have hired done, 
but nearly all other work has been my personal labor, 
which has given me great pleasure and satisfaction 
and been of great benefit to my general health. It is 
not new employment for me, for fifty years ago I 




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SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY CjJ 

milked two cows and worked in my mother's garden. 
My present garden was a neglected spot six years ago, 
with only a few old apple and cherry trees scattered 
here and there. The soil is a rich loam, with a gravelly 
subsoil. The shape of the lot, containing something 
over two acres, is shown in the sketch, while the garden 
proper, which is L-shaped, contains thirty-two thou- 
sand four hundred square feet. The pasture lot is 
fenced with a woven wire picket fence four feet high, 
placed on top of ten-inch boards, above which are two 
strands of barbed wire. A heavy woven wire fence 
separates the garden from the pasture and extends 
around the eastern side of the barn to the pigeon cote. 
In the passageway between the fences is a gate hung 
fourteen inches from the ground, which allows the 
poultry free range of the pasture lot. All the pea and 
bean vines, the turnip and beet tops, cornstalks and 
cabbage leaves and the various green trimmings are 
consumed by the little Jersey cow. The poultry also 
come in as scavengers and give valuable returns. 

A pit for storing vegetables is a rectangular hole 
in the ground, four feet wide, five and one-half feet 
long and three feet deep. It is lined with rough 
boards to keep the earth from falling in, and has a 
covering also of rough straw to protect from frosts. 
This pit is easy of access at all times during winter, 
and celery and other vegetables stored in it keep 
perfectly. 

For Poisons and Fertilisers I have an oil barrel 
with one head out, which I keep in a convenient place 
and fill with water and cow droppings to make liquid 
manure for flowers and vegetables. I also have a half 
barrel in which is kept dissolved blue vitriol in the 
proportion of five pounds to fifty gallons of water. In 
a keg I keep slaked lime. A mixture of these two I 
spray on grapevines, rose bushes, etc. White hellebore 



98 PRIZE GARDENING 

is used as seems most convenient. It is mixed with 
ten parts of air-slaked lime and shaken on the plants 
with a tin box with holes punched in the lid, or used 
in water, a tablespoonful to two gallons, and sprinkled 
on with a watering can. A knapsack sprayer has 
entirely superseded the old hand and foot pump 
sprayer. 

Corn and lima beans are planted in a cold frame 
as follows : Fruit cans are thrown on a bonrire until 
the ends are melted out, when they are tied together 
with twine. About four inches of earth is removed 
from the cold frame, small pieces of board are laid in 
the bottom, and the cans put on them close together. 
The earth is then put back in, filling the cans and inter- 
stices. Three seeds of corn and two of beans are 
planted in each can. When danger of frost is past, 
the plants are removed to the garden. A small hole is 
dug, the twine cut, the can removed and the earth 
drawn up to the plant. I frequently gain two or three 
weeks' growth in this way. 

Hoiv the Work Was Done. — The following ex- 
cerpts from the daily register will show that the 
methods learned in a business training were followed 
in the garden: March 8, ordered seeds of Burpee & 
Co. to the value of three dollars and fifty cents, mostly 
in packets, ounce, pint and quart packages. March 
13, the seeds arrived by mail; checked them off with 
order and put away in seed box, which is an old tin 
cracker box, mouse proof. March 20, set two barrels 
with both heads out over rhubarb plants in the row, 
banked manure around them and threw some old bags 
over the tops to get a few extra early shoots. April 
1, with a whitewash brush Lyman smeared all the 
grapevines from the ground to the outer ends of the 
stems with the blue vitriol solution with enough lime 
in it to show quite white ; he also did the trunks of the 



SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY 



99 



young trees, clearing away the soil slightly and extend- 
ing up beyond the first crotch. April 10, planted three 
dozen hills each of corn and lima beans in the cold 
frame ; set out one quart white onion sets, sticking a 
parsnip seed or two in each. April 26, hoed cabbage ; 
found worms working on it and sprinkled them with a 
little lime water in which was mixed a solution of blue 
vitriol and a tablespoonful of carbolic acid to the gal- 
lon. May 1, sowed one ounce rape seed under the 




RESIDENCE OF F. J. BELL 



apple tree where nothing else would grow. July 4, 
picked seven quarts of large gooseberries of the fol- 
lowing varieties from young bushes just beginning to 
bear: Chautauqua, Oregon, Jumbo, Clayton, Red 
jacket and Industry. October 17, Lyman and helper 
gathered leaves and placed them along berry rows and 
in the stable for bedding. 

The expenses of this garden were forty-four dol- 
lars and fifty-seven cents. This was all for labor 
except three dollars and fifty cents for seeds and one 
dollar and twenty-five cents for a barrel of lime. 

L.ofC. 



100 PRIZE GARDENING 

Nearly all the products were consumed in the family 
and stored for winter use. 

From a Quarter Acre Garden on town lots in 
Griggsville, Illinois, L. J. Eastman, winner of a five- 
dollar regular prize, secured products worth fifty-four 
dollars and ninety cents at a cash outlay of one dollar 
and ninety-five cents for manure, two dollars and 
seventy-six cents for seed and eight dollars and twenty- 
three cents for work. Profit, forty-one dollars and 
ninety-six cents. In addition he personally performed 
five dollars and fifty-three cents worth of labor, which 
he thinks was offset by the pleasure and health received. 
This town garden, says Mr. Eastman, has furnished 
the family, numbering from ten to two, with all the 
fruit and vegetables required, except potatoes, in a bad 
potato year, and of late years has placed considerable 
produce on the local market. The time devoted to the 
garden was one hundred and twelve hours man's w r ork 
and nine hours boys' work. 

A Productive Little Suburban Garden of two- 
fifths of an acre was entered by A. W. Dickson, Massa- 
chusetts, receiving a Rawson five-dollar prize. Soil 
was good loam and was enriched with three cords of 
stable manure and two hundred pounds fertilizer. 
Celery, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes and peppers 
were started in a cold frame. Space being valuable 
it was saved whenever possible, following early crops 
with cabbage, celery, turnips, winter spinach. Cab- 
bages were set as late as August 12, but were much 
inferior to those set in July. Some celery plants were 
set a foot apart each way, but the extra labor of the 
method more than offset the saving in space. Receipts 
from this garden were sixty-three dollars and ninety- 
five cents. Cost, not including labor of owner, thirty- 
six dollars and seventy-five cents. 



SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY 



IOI 



A City Garden Patch, two-thirds of an acre in a 
Massachusetts city, was planted to one-half acre 
onions and the rest turnips, celery, tomatoes, beets, 
spinach, lettuce, etc., the produce being sold to con- 
sumers. Manure was hauled from the city and some 
fertilizer was used. Tools and team were valued at 
two hundred and twenty dollars and land at one hun- 
dred dollars. Mr. G. E. Belden, who was awarded a 




RESIDENCE OF R. L. PORTER 

Rawson five-dollar prize, estimates that the garden 
patch paid fifteen cents per hour for labor of owner, 
and a clear profit besides of one hundred and thirty- 
seven dollars and eighty-three cents. Onion weeders 
were paid fifty cents per day. Onions sold at forty 
cents per bushel. 

Fighting Borers and Witch Grass. — Located in a 
fertile valley of western Massachusetts and employed 
most of the time in an office, R. L. Porter found oppor- 



102 PRIZE GARDENING 

tunity to manage a prize garden and to make a suc- 
cessful and instructive fight against well-known gar- 
den foes. The illustration shows Mr. Porter's resi- 
dence and the family which provided him an excellent 
home market for much of his produce. The extracts 
describe his early garden work and his method with 
squashes and strawberries : 

The first work done for the garden commences in 
February as soon as seed catalogs arrive. I make a 
rough plan where crops are to be grown, amount of 
seed and fertilizer wanted and place orders for all 
plants, trees and seeds. Nothing more is done until 
the last week in March, when the hotbed is started. 
I have a small one by myself. It is three by four feet, 
two feet deep. Bought one-eighth cord horse manure 
for generating the heat, making the depth of manure 
one and one-half feet. Over this I placed four inches 
soil that had been taken up with celery the fall before, 
making soil fine and allowing to heat under cover of 
the glass for a few days. When soil had got well 
warmed I moistened it with lukewarm water, planted 
radishes, lettuce, celery and covered with one-half inch 
of sand, firming with a smooth board. 

For Winter Squashes, I took the worst piece of 
witch grass that the meadow possesses, marked out for 
hills six feet each way by throwing out a forkful of 
earth. The fertilizer was then put in, two parts of 
wood ashes to one of bone meal, one quart to each hill. 
Then I took a fork, mixing the fertilizer with the soil, 
shaking out all the witch grass, smoothed over the hill, 
dropped the seed and covered about an inch deep, then 
pressed well with the hoe. The first leaf that showed 
was given a sprinkling of paris green to kill the black 
and yellow striped bug. I keep the cultivator, both 
horse and Wheel hoe, going until the vines get to run- 
ning and then they will keep the witch grass down. 



CHAPTER VIII 



FERTILIZER GARDENS 



Offers of special prizes for gardens enriched with 
commercial fertilizers led to their extensive use, espe- 
cially by contestants in the eastern states. The season 
being a very dry one was for that reason unfavorable to 
chemical manures, since it is claimed that manure of 
animals improves the drouth-resisting power of the 
soil. The accounts showing best results from fer- 
tilizers usually described gardens with soil full of 
vegetable fiber ; very often it was fresh plowed sod 
land, and the results give the impression that chemi- 
cal fertilizers are most profitably used on light, loose, 
rather moist soils that have been recently in sod. 

In many gardens, fertilizer was lavishly used, one 
of the offers requiring the application at the rate of 
two tons per acre. The results often showed that the 
quantity and quality of the crop justified such an out- 
lay at the start, while in other cases it failed to pay. 
From the representative accounts following may be 
judged something of the various conditions and results 
in the fertilized gardens : 

The First Prise for fertilizer gardens was awarded 
to E. R. Flagg, Worcester county, Massachusetts. This 
garden was fresh-turned grass sod, a gravelly, yellow- 
ish loam worth fifty dollars per acre. The plot con- 
tained one thousand square feet. It received one hun- 
dred and fifty pounds high grade fertilizer, besides 
twenty- two pounds of lime to correct the sourness of 
the soil. The garden was plowed deeply' May 5, and 
the turned sod well worked with a horse cultivator 



104 



PRIZE GARDENING 



four times ovtr, making a mellow surface three inches 
deep without pulling up much of the sod. A smooth- 
ing harrow finished the job. 

Seed was planted deep on account of the dry sea- 
son, and fertilizer applied in the drill and stirred in 
with a small tree brush. Some of the garden was very 
closely planted, early radish and spinach, for instance, 
being planted between rows of potatoes. The between 
crops were done about the middle of June. The pota- 



H | 




EDWARD R. FLAGG 



toes were followed by peas and beans sown the last 
part of July, but these did not thrive. Mr. Flagg 
thinks very close planling not desirable on a dry year. 
The drouth seemed more serious on the sod land than 
upon old ground. 

Cultivating the Garden. — May 30, used the garden 
drill fitted with cultivator teeth or hoes through the 
garden wherever crops were sufficiently above ground 
to make it possible, considering the very close planting. 
Nearly all the ground was stirred excepting a little 



FERTILIZER GARDENS 105 

close to the carrots, and narrow strips where the hills 
of corn, pole beans and melons were planted. 

Cultivated the garden June 3, working as close as 
possible to the plants — potatoes, peas, beans, corn, tur- 
nips and beets are well up so that cultivating is easily 
done. Lack of suitable showers and ground getting 
very dry. Thinned the turnips June 6, using those 
removed for greens. Carefully stirred the earth 
directly over the melon and squash seeds. They ger- 
minate slowly on account of the dry weather. Placed 
some low, small pea brush along the row of Extra 
Early peas June 9. Put some water on the melon hills 
to hasten germination and thinned the turnips still 
more. Removed the last of the radishes June 19 and 
perhaps a half dozen very dwarf spinach plants from 
between the rows of potatoes. Spinach a complete 
failure, owing doubtless to soil acidity, as no lime was 
put on this part of the garden. Some of the radishes 
were wormy and useless. Applied " Bug Death " to 
the potato vines to kill potato beetles. Scattered fer- 
tilizer between the rows of potatoes and worked it into 
the soil thoroughly with the drill plow. Substituted 
the hoes for the plow and worked out all the other 
crops, removing all weeds from among the plants. 

Made a second application July 4 of " Bug 
Death " to the potato vines. July 14, thinned the 
beets for greens. Dry weather has caused the beets 
to grow very slowly. July 15, pulled up all pea vines 
and stirred the earth about the melons and tomato 
plants. July 18, used the wheel hoe to cultivate all 
the garden wherever possible to get between the plants. 
Pulled up the turnips for pig feed, as they are getting 
wormy. July 24, dug the potatoes, fertilized the 
ground and on the following day planted peas, beans 
and turnips. August 2, used cultivator to stir the 
earth between the rows of peas and beans on the potato 



106 PRIZE GARDENING 

ground. August 4, pulled out the row of bush beans, 
which had ceased bearing, to give the bush limas more 
room. August 16, cut up the first planting of corn, 
using the fodder for the cows. August 19, stuck some 
of the pea brush used earlier in the season along 
the rows of Extra Early peas on the potato ground. 
Used the cultivator between the rows of peas, beans 
and turnips. September 25, cut up the last planting 
of sweet corn. Had a very large barrow load of fodder 
for the cows. 

Spinach was sown with the radish seed be- 
tween the rows of potatoes on the unlimed portion 
of the garden as a sort of vegetable test for acidity in 
the soil, and its utter failure to grow corroborated the 
litmus paper test previously made. It was the inten- 
tion to sow spinach for fall use on the limed portion of 
the garden, but again the crowded condition of the 
crops gave no opportunity for such sowing. Upon 
that portion of the garden it would, without doubt, 
have given a good crop. 

In this locality of early fall frosts, that most deli- 
cious of all green beans, the lima, is rarely grown. It 
gave very moderate results in our garden, because 
somewhat crowded and shaded by the rows of Potter's 
Excelsior corn. The Dwarf lima is worthy of trial and 
care in every garden. Planted as other beans are ordi- 
narily planted, the lima has difficulty in getting its huge 
bulk out of the soil in the process of germination. Care 
in planting is therefore necessary. Fertilize well. 
Ridge the drill a little above the level of the soil to 
throw off surplus water and plant edgewise, eye down, 
not too deep in the soil. The garden culture of this 
bean should be encouraged. 

Another vegetable quite unknown is the kohl-rabi, 
a plant of the earliest culture, without enemies or dis- 
eases, quick growing and as palatable as the turnip; 



FERTILIZER GARDENS IO? 

more acceptable to some. It should find a place in 
every garden. Cultivate in every way like cabbage, 
except that the plants may be set out twelve inches 
apart in the drill. Cut for use when the bulb is about 
three inches in diameter, tender and not " woody," 
cook and prepare for the table like turnip or with 
cream like cauliflower. 

The sweet corn was planted in single rows the 
length of the. garden, and under those circumstances 
the fertilization of the ears was less perfect than usual. 
Sweet corn evidently requires considerable cross- 
fertilization between individual plants, hence planting 
a given number of hills in a compact mass is doubtless 
much better practice than putting an equal number of 
hills in a long single row. 

The peas planted July 25 produced only one pick- 
ing of nine quarts, and the vines were badly covered 
with mildew. The beans planted at the same time 
gave nothing, as they were killed by the frost of Sep- 
tember 14-16 when the first bean pods were about one 
inch in length. Neither could be called a success- 
ful crop. 

In planting potatoes, fertilizer was first broad- 
casted over the plot and worked into the soil, the small 
stones being raked out before plowing. The furrows 
were made with the garden drill with plow attach- 
ment, the first one on the east side, nine inches from 
the boundary line running north and south. Six 
others were made parallel with the first and eighteen 
inches apart. Extra Early potatoes had been exposed 
to the light in a single layer in a moderately warm 
room since March 30 and had developed buds about 
one-half inch in length. The tubers were carefully 
cut into one and two-eye pieces and immediately placed 
in the bottom of the furrows, the sets being twelve 
inches apart. Five pounds of potatoes planted the 



108 PRIZE GARDENING 

space. A little soil was placed over each set and the 
furrows dusted with potato fertilizer. The covering 
was quickly and neatly done with the garden plow. 
The spaces between the potato drills were dusted with 
fertilizer, and after working it into the soil a row of 
Victoria Spanish and Burpee's Earliest radish seeds, 
mixed, was sown with the seed drill in each space. 
This planting was done May 5, following a heavy frost 
the previous morning. 

Seeds for this garden cost three dollars and twen- 
ty-seven cents ; all supplies, five dollars and forty-six 
cents ; labor, three dollars and six cents ; receipts were 
twenty dollars, and profits seven dollars and eighty- 
nine cents. 

Gracing Premium Products. — Prize vegetables 
were abundant on the quarter-acre garden cultivated 
by W. H. Pillow, New York, winner of the second 
Bowker special prize. His account includes a long 
list of awards at the state fair and several county fairs, 
besides special prizes offered by seedsmen. His aggre- 
gate winnings were fifty-five dollars and seventy-five 
cents, and amounted to over one-half of the whole 
income, which was ninety-five dollars and seventeen 
cents. Expenses were seventy-nine dollars and eigh- 
teen cents, expenses of growing and exhibiting the 
product being heavy. A good share of his success 
appears to have been due to starting his vegetables 
under glass, as elsewhere described. Writes Mr. 
Pillow : 

For sowing by hand I use the hand marker and 
make drills sixteen inches apart. In every other row 
I put beets, mangels and such things as stand all 
summer and require room, while the intervening rows 
were used for radishes, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, all 
of which are out of the way by the time the permanent 
crop requires the room- After sowing such seed as is 



FERTILIZER GARDENS 



109 



sowed by hand I cover by brushing, lengthwise and 
lightly, over the drill with the back of the hoe. This 
covers the seed and presses the ground about it similar 
to the action of a roller. With practice one can do 
this as fast as one can walk. I use stakes for marking 
divisions between the different kinds of seeds, made 




ON CULTURE AND CHEMICALS 



from sections of plastering laths a foot long and 
marked with a number. A record of these is kept in 
a book that I carry in my pocket, so that I can tell at 
any time from the number on the stake what kind of 
seed was planted. 

Pricked outdoors May 5 from hotbed, cabbage 
and lettuce plants that were between rows of beets to 



110 PRIZE GARDENING 

stand until large enough to transplant where they are 
to mature, the lettuce to make heads for use. The 
lettuce was placed six inches apart in the row, the 
cabbage two inches apart. I used a pointed wooden 
drill and transplanted as heretofore described. 

A Prime Garden on Chemicals. — By pinning his 
faith to commercial fertilizer in lavish quantity, E. N. 
Foote of Massachusetts secured a good garden, not- 
withstanding the drouth. The profit was one hundred 
and twenty-seven per cent on cost, and his concise 
account secured him the third special prize. 

This was strictly a fertilizer garden, not a spoon- 
ful of manure having been used on the land for the 
past ten years, during which time the piece was in sod 
until the year preceding the garden, when onions had 
been grown there on fertilizer. The' area was about 
one-sixth of an acre and the soil the porous, sandy 
loam of the Connecticut river valley. It was plowed 
and harrowed in fall and again in spring, followed by 
rolling. Declares Mr. Foote : " My experience has 
been that no labor pays better for a seed crop than to 
thoroughly firm the ground, filling all the air spaces 
and preventing the rapid evaporation of soil water." 

High grade fertilizer was applied broadcast at rate 
of two tons per acre and harrowed in. Cultivation of 
the garden was thorough and frequent, a wheel hoe 
being used. Of the seventeen vegetables grown, four- 
teen showed a profit and three a small loss. The best 
showing was with winter squash, which on one thou- 
sand eight hundred and twenty square feet produced 
sixteen dollars and eighty-four cents worth, at a cost 
of four dollars and sixty-one cents. Small areas of 
radishes, cabbages, beets, lettuce, cucumbers and toma- 
toes proved very profitable. Sweet corn, although sold 
at good prices, fifteen to twenty-five cents per dozen, 



FERTILIZER GARDENS III 

netted a loss of a few cents, the fertilizer alone costing 
three-fifths of the crop returns. Pole beans also made 
a bad showing, owing in part to cost of poles, setting 
them and tying the vines. Onions were the third finan- 
cial failure, owing to low prices for crop and amount 
of labor required. 

The garden gospel, according to Mr. Foote, may 
be summed up in these four rules or requirements : 

A plot of land free from all shade of trees or 
buildings. 

Good garden fertilizer applied at the rate of not 
less than two tons to the acre. 

The very best seed the market produces, regard- 
less of cost. 

Thorough cultivation from early spring until fall. 

Drainage and Fertilizer. — A farm garden made 
fit by deep drainage and dressed with commercial fer- 
tilizer was entered by A. C. Abrams, Albany county, 
New York, and received fourth prize. Soil was moist 
clay loam. The plot contained about one-third acre, 
and is enclosed with pickets painted with coal tar ; a 
fencing which has lasted fifty years or more. Too 
much moisture came in from a small lake on a higher 
level, but by a drain twenty-five rods long with a rise 
of one-half inch per thirteen feet the surplus water was 
removed. This drain was finally extended to the lake, 
draining away its contents and greatly improving the 
adjoining land. The garden was fertilized at rate of 
two tons per acre, but the dry season prevented the 
full effect. 

About one-third of the fertilizer was sown broad- 
cast before plowing. The ground was then plowed 
nicely about eight inches deep, then about one-third 
more fertilizer sown broadcast and the ground thor- 
oughly cultivated. The balance of the fertilizer was 



112 PRIZE GARDENING 

saved for use in hills and second crop, but it was soon 
found the soil had quite as much fertilizer as the seed 
and plants would bear, so Mr. Abrams used the balance 
largely between the rows. 

Labor was charged at twelve cents per hour by 
hand and thirty cents by horse. Fertilizer cost four- 
teen dollars and thirty-five cents and seeds three dol- 
lars and three cents. Among the crops were lettuce, 
radish, peas, tomatoes, cabbage, celery, cucumbers, 
beets, beans, turnips, corn. The location proved excel- 
lent for celery, yielding one thousand one hundred and 
twenty plants, worth sixteen dollars and eighty cents. 
Total receipts were seventy-four dollars and forty 
cents ; cost, forty dollars and seventy-nine cents ; profit, 
thirty-three dollars and sixty-one cents. 

Feeding the Soil. — By using fertilizer at the rate 
of two tons to the acre, R. E. Bartlett, New Hamp- 
shire (Bowker five-dollar prize), managed to make 
a tolerably good garden from a plot which had been 
used as a yard for colts and in cleaning which all the 
surface soil had been removed. The owner says : " The 
land seemed dead and did not do so well as much other 
land that I tilled." The fertilizer was mostly sowed 
and then raked in. The plot contained only one thou- 
sand three hundred square feet, valued at two dol- 
lars. It produced a great variety of vegetables for 
home use, worth ten dollars and fifty-seven cents, at 
a cost of six dollars and twenty-nine cents. Profit, 
four dollars and twenty-eight cents. Much of the fer- 
tilizer would remain for the following year unless the 
texture of the denuded soil being little better than sand 
should allow leaching. A cover crop of rye plowed 
under in the spring would help save the fertility and 
tend to restore the soil. 

A Fine Profit from one thousand square feet is 
shown by S. L. Parker, Massachusetts. He cleared 



FERTILIZER GARDENS 113 

thirty dollars and fifty-four cents, of which nearly 
twenty dollars was for premiums at fairs. For vege- 
tables used in the family he charged four dollars and 
forty-five cents and sold four dollars and twenty-two 
cents worth, besides giving away two dollars and three 
cents worth and having five dollars and twenty-six 



FARM AND GARDEN OF J. G. LYMAN 

cents worth on hand. Labor cost two dollars and 
fifty-seven cents, seeds fifty-one cents, fertilizer one 
dollar and twenty-five cents. The plan of laying all 
crops in long straight rows evidently saved expense 
in labor, and the wheel hoe was a great help in the same 
direction. By planting for a late garden, Mr. Parker 
succeeded in avoiding the drouth which proved so 



114 PRIZE GARDENING 

injurious to early vegetables. A gorgeous row of nas- 
turtiums added to the garden's attractiveness. The 
account well deserved the five-dollar prize awarded. 

Quarter-acre Garden of Jere O'Keefe, Massachu- 
setts, was fresh turned sod from a run-out mowing 
field which had not been manured for ten years. Fer- 
tilizer was sown broadcast and harrowed in at the rate 
of two tons per acre, and nineteen kinds of seed were 
planted. Beans, cucumbers, beets and potatoes did 
well ; melons, carrots and onions failed. Other sorts 
did fairly well. Income, forty-three dollars and fifty- 
three cents ; cost, thirty-one dollars and seventy cents ; 
profit, eleven dollars and eighty-three cents. 

A Net Profit of Ninety-two Dollars and Forty- 
three Cents is recorded from a little more than an acre 
and three-quarters, by J. G. Lyman, Connecticut, 
besides an amount nearly as large charged off for labor. 
The account won a Rawson five-dollar prize. The 
land was good loam, second year from sod, and was 
given fertilizer at the rate of one thousand five hundred 
pounds per acre at a cost of forty-two dollars and fif- 
teen cents. Income was two hundred and sixty-three 
dollars and fifteen cents. The produce came early and 
brought good prices, but Mr. Lyman thinks his greatest 
mistake was in not starting work early enough in 
the spring. 

A Very Highly Fertilized One-third Acre was de- 
scribed by Bert A. Hall, Massachusetts. The plot re- 
ceived one thousand five hundred pounds high grade 
fertilizer, twenty bushels ashes and one and one-half 
cords manure. The soil was rather thin and dry. Results 
were disappointing, as the proceeds, sixty-four dollars 
and forty-nine cents, were exceeded by the cost, 
seventy-three dollars and ninety-six cents, by a loss of 
nine dollars and forty-seven cents. The charge for 
wear and tear of tools was, however, too great (thirteen 



FERTILIZER GARDENS 



115 



dollars and thirteen cents) for the area in which they 
were used, and it might fairly be said that the account 
came out nearly even. The experience tends to show 
that old, thin soil and a dry season combine unfavor- 
able conditions for lavish use of fertilizer. The account 
won a Rawson five-dollar prize. 

A Good Family Garden of one thousand one hun- 
dred and seventy-five square feet is reported by J. 
Stark, Connecticut. With five hundred pounds fertilizer 




MRS. w. D. GOSS 



broadcast and harrowed in he raised crops worth forty- 
three dollars and eighty-six cents at a cost of thirty 
dollars and twenty-eight cents, leaving thirteen dollars 
and fifty-eight cents profit. 

Fertilizer at the rate of two tons to the acre made 
an excellent little garden of two thousand square feet 
of sod land owned by Mrs. W. D. Goss, Vermont. 
Half the fertilizer was applied broadcast and the rest 
in hill or drill. Fertilizer cost three dollars and fifty 



Il6 PRIZE GARDENING 

cents ; labor, six dollars and forty-five cents ; seeds, 
two dollars. The vegetables were valued at twenty- 
eight dollars and twenty-two cents ; leaving sixteen 
dollars and twenty-seven cents profit. Potatoes, 
squashes and cabbages were the largest items, and these 
vegetables seem to thrive in most of the fertilizer gar- 
dens on new land. The garden account received a 
five-dollar Bowker prize. 



CHAPTER IX 

PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 

Of the fortunate one hundred securing a prize, no 
fewer than twenty-seven were women. Some of these 
merely prepared the account, the actual gardening 
having been done by male relatives, and such accounts 
were nearly always attractive and complete. Other 
women contestants did more or less of the work of the 
garden. A few of them did everything, even to the 
spading and carting of manure. Some of the best 
gardens were planned, worked and managed by women. 

In most cases the gardeners of the fair sex made 
a reasonable cash profit, but it is a noteworthy fact 
that nearly every one of them mentions increase of 
health and pleasure as a leading advantage from the 
experiment. Women living on farms do not stay in 
the open air and sunlight so much as might be sup- 
posed, and some of them note with evident surprise 
the benefit obtained from a daily bit of outdoor work. 
Light gardening seems to be the one form of useful 
exercise that can be depended on for good results 
for women. 

One woman of seventy years took up the work 
largely on account of her health and says the outdoor 
exercise helped her more than all the doctors in the 
land. Another says : " I have derived considerable 
pleasure from my garden, a good deal of experience 
and a little money. Of course I have made many mis- 
takes, which another year I hope to avoid." 

The absurdity of the attempt to dose and drug a 
sickly body to permanent health has been recently 



Il8 PRIZE GARDENING 

declared with emphasis by certain lights of the medical 
profession. Still worse to depend on the crude theo- 
ries and medicated tipples of the advertising quacks. 
Pushing a garden plow is better than pills, and plant- 
ing the seeds a better tonic than any patent powders. 

If some new type of philanthropist would donate 
hospital sites to be divided into small garden plots to 
be worked by ailing women, it is a question if the plan 
would not finally avert more suffering than if the land 
were covered with hospital buildings and sanitariums. 
At any rate, for the average woman, a garden in the 
back yard is better than an apothecary shop on the 
next corner, and a dollar invested outdoors has saved 
many a family another dollar in doctors' fees and ten 
times its value in trouble and suffering. But there are 
plenty of women who make gardening pay them also 
in dollars and cents. 

A Smart Woman's Success. — One of the most 
successful gardeners in the contest was Miss Sadie A. 
Dibble of Connecticut, who did nearly all the work of 
planting and cultivating, and all the harvesting and 
marketing in a fruit and vegetable garden of three- 
fourths of an acre. 

From this plot of ground she raised products worth 
two hundred and twenty-three dollars and thirty-five 
cents, besides giving away twenty-five dollars worth 
and taking twenty-five dollars more in premiums at 
the local fair, making the total income two hundred 
and seventy-three dollars and thirty-five cents. The 
expense for labor was forty-five dollars and twenty 
cents ; fertilizer, twelve dollars ; seeds, four dollars and 
seventy cents, and poisons twenty cents, or a total of 
sixty-two dollars and fifteen cents, which left a profit 
of two hundred and eleven dollars and twenty cents. 
The products were valued at wholesale rates and 
about one-third less than the returns actually received, 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN IIQ 

so that her profits were considerably more than the 
figures indicate. 

The work in the prize garden began early in April 
by trimming the berry bushes and sowing seed in boxes 
and hotbeds the 12th. Hardy seeds, like onion, lettuce, 
radish, peas and beets, were sown in the open ground 
April 25. The principal vegetables grown were peas, 
beans, sweet corn and cabbage, but considerable income 
was also derived from cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, 
melons and squash. The fruit furnished by far the 
larger part of the revenue. 

Her gardening experience began fifteen years ago 
with a piece of five hundred strawberry plants infested 
with weeds. She eradicated the dock, dandelion and 
other weeds, and got a yield of forty quarts a day 
from the bed. She went to town one day to sell a crate- 
ful, as her father was detained, and from this small 
beginning she has worked up a nice trade, which goes 
far toward making her independent. The farm pro- 
duced at that time a succession of grapes, quinces, pears 
and apples, and to these she added a stock of all the 
desirable varieties of raspberries, some blackberries, 
currants, plums and forty grapevines. Writes Miss 
Dibble : 

We had a fine crop of berries, picking about forty 
quarts a day. We could not use them all and were 
obliged to sell some. On the Fourth of July my father 
said to me : "There are twenty-four quarts of straw- 
berries and sixteen quarts of cherries engaged to go to 
Stony Creek to-day. I cannot go with them myself, 
but if you will go you can have the money." I nearly 
turned pale and trembled at the idea. Me go? Why, 
I was quite high-toned and had never done anything 
of the kind in my life. My married sister was visiting 
me and she encouraged me to go and said she would 
go with me. We went. We found that by some mistake 



120 PRIZE GARDENING 

there had been put in the crate two quarts extra of 
cherries. What was I to do with them? My sister 
said : "Sell them. They are so beautiful, surely some- 
one would be glad to buy them." So I stopped at a 
cottage where some people were sitting on the veranda. 
They were pleased with the cherries and bought them. 
As soon as their neighbors saw us with 1*he crate they 
rushed out with dishes all eager to buy fruit and dis- 
appointed because we had none. I told them I would 
bring some to-morrow. 

This was the beginning of a fine trade in small 
fruits. I had at that time a succession of pears, apples, 
grapes and quinces. I added to my stock all desirable 
varieties of raspberries, some blackberries, currants, 
plums and forty grapevines. I bought novelties as 
they appeared. I took care of the garden myself as 
far as I was able. By and by one of my customers 
asked if I would plant a vegetable garden for her. 
"Why, yes, certainly." Soon there was another and 
another, and I had more orders than I could fill. The 
fruit and vegetables were picked fresh each morning 
and put up in the neatest possible manner. I dressed 
nicely and drove in a new carriage. My customers 
were delighted with the fruit and very prowd of me. 
I have kept steadily at the work all these years and 
instead of being something degrading, as I at first 
fancied it to be, my labor has proved to be a great 
pleasure, and I have found many friends among edu- 
cated and wealthy people. More than that, I found 
what is best of all — good health. 

Cabbage, lettuce and tomato seed were planted in 
hotbeds. I cut the bottoms from pasteboard boxes 
about six inches square and placed them on trays, 
covers of cracker boxes being used. In these I put 
earth and well-rotted manure, then planted melons, 
cucumbers, summer squash and peppers and placed 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 121 

them in sunny windows. As soon as they were ready 
to transplant, I slipped a trowel under them, it was 
done easily and without disturbing their growth in 
the least. I found it the best method I had ever tried 
for starting tender plants. 

For the Mammoth Whale squash I dug large holes, 
filled them in with cow manure and after covering 
with a little earth planted the seed. When the vines 
had run about ten feet I pinched off the side shoots, 
blossoms and all but one squash. I pinched the top 
of the vine and placed it in a dish containing a pint 
of sweet milk. Each morning or as often as practi- 
cable I repeated the operation. In this way we have 
grown squashes that weigh one hundred and fifty 
pounds. This season the nights were so cold that they 
did not average half that figure. 

Potatoes were cut in pieces containing one eye, 
laid on trays and carefully placed in furrows with the 
eyes uppermost. People said I would not have any 
potatoes, for I cut the seed in such small pieces. From 
one-half bushel seed I raised twelve bushels of enor- 
mous size. These took first premium at the local fair, 
where there was lively competition. 

I don't know that the garden contest made any 
difference with me or my labor. I worked just as 
hard before and I have done the same since. I have 
always a genuine love for my fruit and flowers, and 
ask no better bill of fare than a dinner of fresh vege- 
tables. I like the outdoor life ; the health it gives me, 
the oxygen I breathe. I have made little study of new 
fruits or vegetables for the last two years, as so many 
of my investments have proved worthless. It seems 
that I already have as fine fruits as are known. Cer- 
tainly they are greatly admired and eagerly sought for, 
and I take many premiums at fairs; sometimes one 
hundred at a single fair. 



122 



PRIZE GARDENING 



My methods? I drive my work. I never let my 
work drive me. I do all the work I can in the fall to 
save work in the spring. I do all I can in the spring 
to help along the work in the fall. I never stop to 
think of the weather, if it is too hot, or too cold, if I 
am tired or thirsty. I keep hustling right along. In 




MRS. DOLE'S GARDEN IN AUGUST 



the busy season I rise at four o'clock in the morning. 
I work early, I work late, as seems necessary. I buy 
the best implements possible and the best seeds the 
markets afford. I use plenty of fertilizers. I read 
agricultural papers. When I read a new suggestion I 
follow it until I am satisfied that it is advantageous or 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 12$ 

otherwise. Before all and above everything else is a 
quiet determination to succeed in whatever I undertake. 

A Woman's Pastime. — Our farm upon which the 
garden is situated is a hill farm and in the center of 
the state, writes Mrs. J. E. Dole of Vermont. The 
garden spot is in the open field, which was a piece 
of greensward, and is sixty by one hundred and thirty 
feet, and the soil is a clayey loam. My youngest son 
enlisted in the Spanish-American war and died from 
fever, and to keep my mind and hands busy I entered 
the garden contest. I knew I could not compete with 
those who live where the season is longer and who do 
not expect a frost every month. With a set of Planet 
Jr implements, garden hoe and rake I felt well 
equipped for the summer's work. The garden spot 
was easy of access, quite level, but the soil was thin 
in places, as it was underlaid with a granite ledge. 

The weather was so cold that no work was done 
until May I, when eight cords of manure were put on 
and the garden plowed and harrowed. I sowed some 
peas in double rows one foot apart and two feet 
between every two rows, so that I could bush two rows 
of peas with one set of brush. Made drills with my 
hoe and put Bowker's phosphate in the bottom, cover- 
ing with loose soil before sowing the peas. Planted 
bush cranberry beans, onions, lettuce, beets, spinach, 
parsley and sweet corn May 5-6. May 8 made three 
flower beds twenty-four by two and one-half feet and 
raked in phosphate sown broadcast before planting the 
seed, which was aster, snapdragon, balsam, bachelor's 
button, candytuft, cacalia, dianthus, gaillardia, lobelia, 
marigold, mignonette, petunia, phlox, poppies, portu- 
laca, sweet alyssum, verbenas and feverfew. 

Planted some potatoes May 9, the next day cab- 
bage, cauliflower, carrots, turnips and lettuce and the 
day following okra, martynia, beet, radish and sweet 



124 PRIZE GARDENING 

corn. During the latter part of the month and early 
June I planted sweet potatoes, pumpkins, beans, sweet 
corn, broccoli, parsnips, salsify, squash, potatoes, 
cucumbers, radish, popcorn and nasturtium. The 
ground is full of trumpet vine and milkweed., and it 
makes me discouraged to look across the garden and 
see the weeds cropping up everywhere. Early in June 
I transplanted egg plants, peppers, cabbage and cauli- 
flower. The earliest plants from seed sown in the 
house in February were killed by transplanting in soil 
made too rich with hen manure. In setting out my 
plants I dug a hole a foot or more across, set the plant 
in the center, not disturbing the roots any more than 
I could help, when I tore the paper box away from 
them and drew some soil up around the plants, then 
put on the well-rotted manure, half a shovelful in a hill, 
and covered the fertilizer, leaving the ground a little 
the lowest next to the plant. 

There was no rain from May 30 to June 25, when 
a heavy shower wet down about an inch. There will 
not be many days now that we will not have something 
from the garden to help fill out our bill of fare. Owing 
to the extremely dry weather many seeds came up 
unevenly. Some popcorn was a foot high and mar- 
tynia in blossom, while other seeds were just breaking 
through. For celery plants I put well-rotted manure 
three or four inches deep in the bottom of the trench 
and covered it with soil before setting the plants. I 
used ashes freely on the onion bed and around all 
the plants. 

The garden cost, for fertilizer, nineteen dollars 
and seventy cents ; seeds, three dollars and fifty cents ; 
rent of land, two dollars ; labor, most of which I did 
myself, twenty-eight dollars and forty-five cents ; or a 
total of fifty-three dollars and sixty-five cents. At 
wholesale prices the products were worth sixty-one 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 1 25 

dollars and seventy-eight cents. At our fair I took 
first prize for best collection of vegetables and pre- 
miums to the amount of eight dollars and forty cents, 
making the total income from the garden seventy dol- 
lars and eighteen cents, and the profit sixteen dollars 
and fifty-three cents. Besides having plenty of fresh 
vegetables, I found the work in the open air was of 
great benefit to my health. 

A Good Home Garden was operated by Estella 
Arney of Illinois. The garden is seventy-four by one 
hundred and two feet, with a path through the center 
lengthwise and a row of currants and gooseberries on 
either side. Along the outside boundaries are a row 
of raspberries, twelve bunches of rhubarb, several of 
horse-radish, twelve grapes, six bunches winter onions, 
sage and a few stalks of flowers. The tools used were 
a hoe, rake and spading fork. Four loads of stable 
manure for fertilizer. During April four days' work 
was done plowing the garden, planting sixty hills of 
potatoes, four of cucumbers and sowing onion, cabbage 
and lettuce seed. There were gathered nineteen 
bunches of onions and five of horse-radish and eighty 
cents spent for seeds. 

In May, two and one-fifth days' labor was put in 
planting beans, sweet corn and beets, transplanting 
three hundred cabbages, fifty mango peppers, sixty 
tomatoes and hoeing onions, while the products were 
two bunches rhubarb, twelve beets, thirty bunches 
onions, three messes radishes and six of lettuce. The 
late table beets, butter beans and bunch beans and 
lettuce were planted in June, two hundred and fifty late 
cabbages set, celery transplanted and the garden hoed 
several times, two and one-half days' work being given 
in all. The products were forty bunches of onions, 
three and one-quarter bushels lettuce, twenty-five cents 
worth radishes, four and one-half gallons gooseberries, 



126 PRIZE GARDENING 

one gallon currants, three gallons raspberries, eleven 
bunches rhubarb and two and one-half gallons of it 
canned, and twenty cents worth of horse-radish. 

During July the garden was well cultivated, the 
onions (three bushels) gathered and the ground sowed 
to turnips, while an abundance of early cabbages, 
cucumbers, beets, lettuce and tomatoes were picked. 
The last cultivation was given in August, when nearly 
all the garden was hoed. A hose long enough to reach 
nearly the entire garden was attached to the pump 
and the cabbage irrigated. An abundance of products 
were gathered, including one hundred and five pounds 
grapes, seven dozen peppers, five dozen ears sweet corn, 
one-half bushel dried beans, two bushels tomatoes and 
twelve gallons kraut made. 

More irrigation was done in September, and the 
turnips thinned, while in October the cabbages were 
pulled and buried or made into sauerkraut, the turnips 
and remaining crops harvested. Fifty heads of cab- 
bage were buried, fifteen gallons kraut made, five 
bushels turnips and three pecks beets gathered. A 
large bunch of celery, some cabbage, turnips and beets 
were exhibited at the fair and awarded first premiums. 

In figuring up the productions, Mrs. Arney finds 
a valuation of thirty-six dollars and thirty-nine cents, 
an expense of nineteen dollars and fifty-five cents for 
labor, fertilizer, seeds and insect powder, and a profit 
of sixteen dollars and eighty-four cents. This is at 
the rate of two hundred and nine dollars and twenty- 
three cents per acre for production and ninety-six dol- 
lars and eighty-three cents profit. She did all the work 
except plowing, earned fifteen dollars and twenty cents 
for her labor, and remarks : " I am glad that I joined 
the contest, for I am sure I have learned quite a good 
deal. I have never thought about how much the gar- 
den was really worth." 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 



127 



The Winner of the Ninth Regular Prize was Mrs. 
L. A. Ludwig, Holling, Kansas, her account standing 
highest among the lady contestants in that list. Her 
husband being disabled by rheumatism, this plucky 
woman was thrown upon her own resources for the 
time, yet she not only succeeded in planting and caring 
for a good garden, with the help of her five young 
children, but also prepared a model report in point of 
neatness, compactness and clearness. 




MRS. L. A. LUDWIG 



Sales from the one and one-third acres were two 
hundred and thirty-eight dollars and forty cents, with 
cabbage, radish, onions and tomatoes heading the list 
as money-makers. The good work done by the chil- 
dren was shown in the sale of over sixty dollars worth 
of onions weeded by them. The charge for labor was 
ninety-one dollars and fifty-three cents. All expenses, 
one hundred and seventy-two dollars and eleven cents, 
leaving sixty-six dollars and twenty-nine cents profit. 
Much labor was saved by the use of a wheel hoe. By 



128 PRIZE GARDENING 

sowing the quickly germinating onion seed, a little of 
it in the drills with the onion seed, the rows became 
visible in a few days, and cultivation could begin 
at once. 

Airs. Ludwig, being a farmer's daughter and 
sickly in childhood, did not have the advantage of com- 
pleting even a common school education, and being one 
of a large family of children, began work away from 
home at the age of fourteen. She was married at 
twenty-two to F. M . Ludwig, sixteen years ago. Their 
triumph came in 1900 in the shape of a little five- 
acre home paid for and practically out of debt. The 
family includes two boys and four girls, a happy rol- 
licking set, every one natural horticulturists and stu- 
dents of nature. 

A Woman's Garden Diary. — An excellent under- 
standing of the toils, perplexities and joys of the aver- 
age amateur gardener may be gathered from the prize 
winning record given below by Mrs. W. R. Bale of 
New Jersey : 

I commenced my garden by planting in boxes in 
a sunny east window in the cellar a few lettuce and 
cabbage seeds, and by putting tomato seeds in flower 
pots in the kitchen windows. The mice ate the lettuce 
and cabbage plants after they were nicely started. I 
then sowed more the last of March in the house, put- 
ting them out of doors when the weather was suitable. 
These thrived apace and gave good plants for the gar- 
den later. 

The first real work done in the garden was pre- 
paring the ground for sweet peas and celery. This 
was late in March and during early April. As I 
wished to raise celery plants for sale, I sowed two 
ounces of seed, every one of which I think sprouted. I 
made a level row six inches wide, over which I scat- 
tered the seed thinly. This proved a good way, as the 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN I2U, 

plants were not crowded, and grew stocky and strong. 
They were sheared off" three times before time for 
transplanting and made excellent plants. The space 
where they were planted was about twelve by twenty- 
four feet and held nearly ten thousand plants, of which 
about eight thousand five hundred were set out, sold or 
given away. io each neighbor or friend I gave fifty, 
letting them buy as many more as they wanted. I sold 
about seven thousand at thirty-five cents per hun- 
dred, making the little patch very profitable, although 
I spent much work upon it. 

The next work was getting the berry bushes in 
order, and I spent much time in trimming and thin- 
ning them out and cutting out dead wood. When we 
began planting the early seeds I put a radish seed every 
two or three inches in all the rows of onions and pars- 
nips, then firmed the soil by walking over the rows. 
The radishes germinated in a few days, marking the 
rows so that they could be worked before the other 
plants showed above ground. The radishes grow 
quickly and can be pulled and used before the other 
plants are large enough to need the room. 

We have had a great deal of trouble with the little 
fleas that eat the radishes, tomatoes, etc., and used 
plaster and soot freely. We had many fine cabbage 
plants, but all the Savoy and some of the others had 
club root so bad that they could not be used. Had 
such dry weather that everything seemed likely to die. 
Hoeing every day or evening after sundown was our 
only resource, as to draw water and carry it from the 
well was more than I could do, although I carried a 
great many pailfuls for celery. We had much trouble 
with the squash bugs in squashes, cucumbers and 
melons. We planted radishes in the hills and used 
cow manure mixed with water, sprinkled on the vines. 
Many hills had to be planted over, but I guess we shall 



I3O PRIZE GARDENING 

have plenty of plants, for every vacant square foot in 
the garden has a melon or squash vine coming up. 
Uncle says "he likes to have plenty and they will do 
no hurt." 

July 12. — Gathered the first cucumbers. They are 
selling here at three for ten cents. All vegetables are 
very high ; lettuce five cents a head now at Newton, 
beets nine cents a bunch, peas and beans five cents a 
quart. The celery plants are going off well. All the 
people who come for them exclaim in wonder over our 
garden. "The finest garden I ever saw I" "Why ! 
You have everything in your garden." "What do you 
expect to do with so much?" These and many more 
admiring comments. 

August i. — We have so many cucumbers that I 
do not know what to do with them, and everybody else 
has them also. Last year I supplied all the neighbors, 
sometimes giving away three bushels at a time. Now 
I can only feed them to the hogs. Have found the 
thief which has been eating the parsnip tops. Going 
quietly out just now I saw a ground hog run from the 
parsnips down under the wire fence through the stones, 
into his hole. Mr. B. says he will kill him with bisul- 
phide of carbon. The Fordhook Early corn has given 
us but two dozen ears fit to eat. They are either 
unfilled or covered with smut, more of the latter. The 
Country Gentleman is very fine and not very late. It 
is planted very thick, but sets two or three good ears 
to a stalk, so we shall have plenty. The tomatoes are 
simply a wonder. They are now ripening at the rate 
of a bushel or more a day and still in bloom. The 
Gradus and Quality peas both began to bloom after the 
first crop was picked and have given us several messes 
for the table and seed for next year. I suppose the 
dry weather early, and later so much rain, was the 
cause of the unusual proceeding. 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 131 

September I. — There are many melons and they 
are now ripening fast. We have many freaks this 
year. Nearly every stump where we have cut a cab- 
bage head has grown from three to thirty small heads, 
from the size of a walnut to three or four inches in 
diameter. One cauliflower, instead of making a single 
head, branched from the stalk and gave six heads about 
four inches across, each inclosed in its outer leaves. I 
found several medium-sized ears of corn not covered 
by any husk at the top of the stalks among the tassels. 
The Australian Brown onion was very good and of 
mild and pleasant flavor. The celery seems to be 
blighting. The outside leaves turn brown at the tips 
and slowly die down. Both varieties seem affected, 
and some who bought plants have the same trouble. 
Out of six hundred plants set not more than half that 
number are good ones. 

November 10— The garden is about all garnered 
in. The celery is to bury and the vegetable oysters 
and parsnips, both very fine, will be left in the ground 
till spring, with the exception of a few packed in sand 
for winter use. 

One of the Most Profitable Small Gardens was 
carried on by Mrs. L. M. A. Hall, Tolland county, Con- 
necticut. Her income from about a quarter-acre was 
two hundred and five dollars and sixty-four cents. 
Expenses were sixty-three dollars and thirteen cents, 
leaving one hundred and forty-two dollars and fifty- 
one cents net. The produce was sold from a meat cart, 
and brought fair prices. Earliness greatly helped the 
cash returns. Some crops were started indoors, while 
the outdoor crops were planted at the earliest possible 
date, with the result that most of the produce was sold 
before similar crops from other gardens had come into 
the market. Beans and corn were considered the most 
profitable garden crops, but all the common vegetables 



I32 PRIZE GARDENING 

were grown. Fertilizers cost ten dollars and seventy- 
five cents, of which the largest item was five dollars 
for five barrels ashes. Hen manure, stable manure and 
phosphate were also used. Much of the work was done 
by a ten-years-old son with a wheel hoe. Hoeing the 
entire garden before the vegetables came up proved a 
fine plan for killing weeds. This contestant received 
a Rawson five-dollar award. 

Writing in June, 1901, Mrs. Hall says: " I have 
doubled the size of last year's garden and hired my son 
by the month to till it. He is eleven years old, and I 
give him three dollars a month, the money to be put 
in bank. I believe an acre of garden the most remu- 
nerative one on the farm if worked to its best. We 
had squashes, beets and roots of all kinds till April this 
year, which I think is the result of ripening early and 
care in harvesting." 

A Native of Germany, and inexperienced in writ- 
ing English, Mrs. Clara Kuntze, Daggett, Michigan, 
told the story of her half-acre garden in a manner suffi- 
ciently clear and accurate to secure a Rawson five- 
dollar prize. The garden was tended by two women 
folk, and seems to have been a success. It included 
such unusual vegetables as lintels, red cabbage, kohl- 
rabi. Use was made of liquid manure and straw mulch. 
Cabbage seed was planted in check rows and the plants 
thinned out. Income was fifty-two dollars and fifty- 
one cents, and expenses, twenty-one dollars and 
forty-seven cents ; leaving thirty-one dollars and 
four cents net. 

A Model Account of a rather poor and unsatis- 
factory garden was submitted by Amelia C. Guild, and, 
according to the terms of the contest, received a special 
Rawson twenty-five -dollar prize, although the cost of 
the garden was four times the income. 




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134 PRIZE GARDENING 

The location was at a summer home at Thomas- 
ton, Maine, which was being started for the benefit of 
poor children irom the cities. Miss Guild had little 
previous experience in gardening, the land was rocky 
and intested with weeds and insect pests, so that many 
of the crops failed to pay expenses. To cap the climax 
of trouble, a neighbor's cow broke in several times and 
completely spoiled some of the crops. The crops were 
worth twenty-seven dollars and fifty-nine cents, at a 
cost of one hundred and ten dollars and seventy-five 
cents. But a portion of the loss is offset by tools and 
material on hand and by improvement to land. The 
two views show some of the difficulties and also the 
beautiful scenery of the mountain range in the back- 
ground, also some of the excellent but costly vege- 
tables grown. 

A Nice Little Income from one-tenth acre was 
reported by Mrs. R. Kirk, Oskaloosa, Iowa, winner of 
a five-dollar Woodruff award. The vegetables not 
wanted for the table were sold to the lady's butter cus- 
tomers, and the total income was fifty-five dollars and 
ninety cents ; cost, thirteen dollars and thirty-five cents ; 
net, forty-two dollars and fifty-five cents. The tomato 
crop was very successful. Seed of Fordhook First 
was started March 9 in soil from the potato bin, cov- 
ered lightly with earth and a pint of wood ashes on top. 
The box was then covered with a cloth and thoroughly 
wetted with hot water, and set behind the stove three 
days with the cloth still on. They came up quickly 
and well and were moved to a cooler place. lk I think 
the whole secret of raising nice plants is not to crowd 
them and to keep them cool enough to prevent their 
spindling," writes Mrs. Kirk. " In setting in the gar- 
den, I level the ground and put plants two and one- 
half feet apart each way, with about a pint of wood 
ashes to each. The soil has already been manured. 




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136 



PRIZE GARDENING 



When the plants are eight to twelve inches high, I drive 
stakes to each one and keep off all suckers but one and 
the main stem. When the vines get to the top of the 
three-foot stakes, I cut the vine off." 

With Plozv, Harrow, Wheelbarrow and Hoes as 
the only tools, Emma C. Fisher, Walpole, Massachu- 
setts, cared for a town garden of one thousand three 
hundred and fifty square feet and secured one of the 
ten-dollar prizes. Income netted a small sum above 
cost. Tomato plants were set in vacant hills of corn. 
Transplanting pumpkins was not a success. Early 
cucumbers were obtained from vines transplanted from 
hotbed. Potatoes yielded best from medium and large 
seed tubers. Purple Top turnips grew faster than the 
White Egg. A tabulated memorandum for each vege- 
table will be useful for future reference and compari- 
son. Below is a specimen from this contestant's diary : 



Name 



Beans 
Wax 

Beets 
Egyptian 



Planted 


Dettii 


Manure 


Up 


Hoed 


Ripe 


May 17 
April 29 


1 i x /2 in 
1 in 


1 shovel 
per 3 ft 

1 bushel 
per 36 ft 


May 29 
May 8 


June 8 
June 19 

May 13, 
20, June 
3.9. '7 


July 14 

July 15 



Yield 

4qts 
4 doz 



" Another year," writes Mrs. Fisher, " I should not 
raise peas, potatoes nor squashes, because, while they 
are doubtless profitable, they require too much land. 
In a small garden there are other vegetables, such as 
radishes, beets, beans, lettuce, melons and parsnips, 
needed only in small quantities, which are more useful 
than a few peas or potatoes. Early ones might be 
desirable, but my garden is not early land." 

A Successful Garden of over three acres is de- 
scribed by Mrs. F. W. Fisk, Clayville, New York. The 
mother of three small children, with no help in the 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 



137 



housework, Mrs. Fisk found time to write a concise 
story of the garden, securing a regular five-dollar prize. 
She did much of the work of the garden and felt ''bene- 
fited mentally, physically, spiritually and financially." 
The value of the produce was seventy-six dollars and 
forty-two cents, and the net profit, thirteen dollars and 




A NEW YORK WOMAN'S GARDEN 



fifty-seven cents. Having no hotbed, the plan of start- 
ing plants indoors was followed with success. Toma- 
toes were sowed in a pan of earth from the woods and 
put on the stovepipe shelf. They were up in four days 
and were transferred to a sunny window. Celery was 



I38 PRIZE GARDENING 

started in boxes April 3, sowing the seed, sprinkling a 
little fine earth over it, wetting thoroughly and setting 
under the stove with paper over the box to keep in the 
moisture. Corn was started about the same time, plant- 
ing hills in small rolls of oilcloth the size of a tomato 
can, removing the roll when transferring to the field. 
Melons and cucumbers were started in pans and trans- 
planted to the field. By this plan good crops of the 
tender vegetables were obtained before frost. 

Won a Prize. — A one and one- fourth -acre farm 
garden kept by Mrs. H. R. Calkins, Plattsburg, New 
York, received an Allen prize of five dollars. The 
account is condensed, but very clear and legible. Soil 
was clay loam fertilized with manure and ashes. Hand 
and wheel tools were used. Many of the seeds were 
home-raised. Supplies were valued at twenty-one dol- 
lars and sixty-five cents ; labor at twenty-eight dollars 
and fifty-three cents ; while the products were worth 
one hundred and eighty-six dollars and eighty-six 
cents ; leaving a balance of fifty dollars and eighteen 
cents. As appears from the account book, this lady 
gardener was systematic in her work, never allowing it 
to get ahead of her, and she seems to have had <a splen- 
did garden with comparatively little difficulty. 

My Flozver Bed was a very satisfactory part of 
my garden, writes Mrs. J. L. England, Maryland. I 
think what time I spent in my garden, one hour after 
supper three days in a week, was more pleasure than 
work. After being in the house all day, it was a pleas- 
ure to get out in the fresh air with a hoe, dress up my 
garden and flower bed, cut a nice bouquet, pull some 
fresh vegetables, or gather a pan of berries to tempt 
the appetite at breakfast. 

The only tools I used were hoe, rake, shovel and 
hand cultivator. I am a cooper's wife with eight chil- 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 



139 



dren and have no help but the children, but I could 
always find time to hoe the garden. I know it will pay 
anyone having one thousand square feet of land, or 
even half that amount, to raise their own vegetables. 
This year when harvest came and lots of workmen, I 




MRS. CALKINS PICKING BERRIES FOR SUPPER 



did not need to depend on the truckman as usual, but 
went into my garden and gathered nice, fresh vege- 
tables. My pocketbook showed the difference. Income, 
seventeen dollars and sixty-two cents ; cost, seven dol- 
lars and eighty-nine cents ; profit, nearly ten dollars. 



140 PRIZE GARDENING 

A Productive Southern Garden, making a return 
of three hundred and fifty-two dollars and ninety-two 
cents at cost of eighty-four dollars and thirty-five cents, 
was entered by Mrs. J. W. Bryan of Georgia, winner 
of one of the Allen special prizes. The location is 
Lookout mountain, a sandy loam, with clay subsoil ; 
area, about one acre, manured with plenty of stable 
and poultry manure. The tools were a bull tongue 
plow, a horse hoe, a wheel hoe and the common hand 
garden tools, all together valued at twenty-three dol- 
lars. Northern seed was used, costing thirty-one 
dollars. Income began April 15 with asparagus, fol- 
lowed by radish, mustard greens and spinach. The first 
Clipper peas were sold May 13, and subsequent sales 
included a great variety of garden products. The 
family had all the garden stuff they could use and a 
surplus for the neighbors. Cost, thirty dollars and 
eighty-three cents ; income, thirty-nine dollars and fifty- 
seven cents. The illustration shows Mrs. Bryan's 
homelike residence. 

Since the garden contest, writes Mrs. Bryan, we 
never feel a drouth in the garden, because I learned 
then that a dust mulch, formed by the weekly use of 
the horse hoe over the whole garden, prevents an injury 
to the plants by even a protracted dryness. I find also 
an awakened interest in my neighbors in their gardens 
by the success of my garden, while theirs suffered from 
the drouth. 

Perseverance Under Difficulty, was the experience 
of Mrs. G. H. Berger, California, who made a plucky 
fight for her garden against great odds, and who 
writes : " I have the satisfaction of knowing my garden 
would have been a great success had I been able to 
keep away the vermin and the cows." Roots of fern 
and poison oak filled the soil. Rabbits ate the peas, 
melons and peanut vines, moles devoured the beans, 



PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN 



141 



while robber cows and birds stole the most of what 
was left. 

An extended and highly detailed account of gar- 
den operations came from two ladies of New York 
state, L. A. and E. S. Denslow, receiving a five-dollar 
Rawson prize. Dry weather and scarcity of labor were 
serious drawbacks, but from the three thousand seven 




HOME OF MRS. J. W. BRYAN 



hundred square feet came an income of forty-seven 
dollars and sixty-nine cents, at a cost of twenty-five 
dollars and ninety-nine cents. Profit, twenty-one dol- 
lars and seventy cents. The growers considered most 
of the crops unsatisfactory, but were pleased with the 
profuse yield of sweet peas, of which great quantities 
were grown for ornament. 



I42 PRIZE GARDENING 

Mrs. Sarah C. Miller, Minnesota, took excellent 
care of her half acre, but spent a total of only sixteen 
and one-half days, which she charged at fifty cents per 
day. The produce amounted to forty-six dollars and 
fifty-eight cents and expenses were twenty-one dollars 
and fourteen cents. The account was a five-dollar 
prize winner. 



CHAPTER X 

YOUNG HORTICULTURISTS 

The garden is Nature's best school. As might be 
expected from such a teacher, the accomplishments 
conferred on the zealous pupils are not showy, novel or 
pretentious, but solid, simple and nobly essential. The 
worthy pupil learns to love his teacher; an acquirement 
of itself a lifelong comfort. He is taught patience, 
industry, perseverance, steadiness ; learns that what is 
sown and tended must be harvested. The gardener 
from choice is a safe man ; kind, domestic, reliable, not 
changeable, choleric or vicious. The boy who has a 
garden attends also the business school of the farm, 
and absorbs skill in planning, systemizing, self-disci- 
pline, enterprise, buying and selling ; all of which will 
be of the utmost value in any line of life. Greatest 
gift of all, the spring-like, all-conquering health and 
vigor which gardening promotes more surely than any 
other useful occupation. 

Prominent and successful gardeners have usually 
begun their work in that line early in life. Many of 
them began with the foundation of their business 
already started by a father to whose experience and 
capital they have added youthful energy. 

A good number of the contestants for prizes were 
young men and boys. Unfortunately many who had 
first-rate gardens took no prize because of some over- 
sight or flaw in the account ; defects due to lack of 
experience. 

A Zealous Young Gardener, George Osborne of 
Illinois, made his half acre pay him seventy-eight 



144 



PRIZE GARDENING 



dollars, of which fifty-seven dollars was net profit, and 
he became so enthusiastic with his experience that he 
planned to cultivate a larger piece the next year. His 
small brothers were hired to help, and they also became 
interested and will have gardens of their own. These 
three young fellows will make their gardens pay, but 
the real and lasting benefit will consist in a training 
and experience not to be bought with money. 




GEORGE OSBORNE'S HOME MARKET 



Manure was obtained from the poultry house and 
ashes from the wood stoves, but a mistake was made in 
that the two were mixed before using, thus impairing 
the value of the manure. Many vegetables were sold 
at the store and pay taken in groceries. Melons were 
a great success, but George suspects that some of them 
found a home market without his knowledge. Carrots, 
turnips and late radishes were stored in barrels sunk 



YOUNG HORTICULTURISTS I45 

in the ground, and the plan was considered better than 
storage in pits, and also more convenient. In planting 
the following year this young gardener would plow the 
fall before ; would lay out a plan of the garden during 
the winter; would have near together such crops as 
are to be followed by second crops, thus allowing the 
second crops to be cultivated in a large plot with long 
rows ; would also put together crops to be left over 
winter, and perennial crops. 

One of the Smaller Gardens entered in the contest 
was that of Oscar P. Roberts of Audubon county, Iowa. 
It contained one thousand two hundred and twenty-five 
square feet, or a little more than one-thirty-fifth of an 
acre, and was planted and cultivated during the spare 
moments of the noon hour and evenings after work in 
the fields. The plat was valued at one dollar and fifty 
cents, and had been cleared of hazel brush and planted 
to a garden several years before. The tools used were 
a hoe, spade, homemade wooden rake and Planet Jr 
garden plow. Early in April three large loads of well- 
rotted manure were drawn out and placed in three piles. 
On the 22d, the ground was plowed seven inches deep 
with a common plow. A piece was leveled and raked 
off and four rows each of Yellow Danvers, Red Weth- 
ersfield and Mammoth Silver King onion and one row 
each of Early Long Scarlet Short Top Improved 
and Early Turnip White Tipped radish and Little 
Gem peas were planted ; rows sixteen inches apart, 
seeds dropped by hand and covered about one-half inch 
deep, except the peas, which were covered three inches. 
On the 28th, two rows of salsify were planted. Pre- 
paratory to outdoor work a packet of Golden Yellow 
celery was in March sown in a box in the house and 
transplanted April 26 to a cold frame and the open 
garden, setting the plants three inches apart each way 
and shading with a little brush to prevent wilting by 



146 



PRIZE GARDENING 



the hot sun. A row of Seibert's Early lima beans was 
planted May 1 in hills two and one-half feet apart, three 
beans to the hill, and covered one and one-half inches 
deep, but these rotted and in place of them some onion 




PEPPERS SIX INCHES LONG GROWN BY OSCAR ROBERTS 



sets were planted on the 10th. The peas came up in 
six days, the salsify in twelve, while the Early Scarlet 
Turnip radishes were fit to eat in twenty-six days 
after planting. 



YOUNG HORTICULTURISTS 147 

As was to be expected the grass and weeds grew 
quickly, so the Planet Jr hoe was used on the 16th, 
and again on the 18th, the whole garden being culti- 
vated in less than an hour each time. Two rows of 
radishes were planted at this time and a row of toma- 
toes was set the 22(1. The latter were about a foot high 
and were taken from a hotbed. A trench was dug and 
the plants laid down in this, only the tip being left out. 
A row of Flat Dutch cabbage and two rows of salsify 
were planted the 23d, and a row and a half each of 
peppers and Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage were set 
the 27th. The garden was now planted except the 
celery, and all that remained to do was to cultivate it 
well and harvest the crops. The Planet Jr hoe was 
used frequently, but hand weeding had to be resorted 
to with the onions, salsify and radishes. 

The lima beans finally came up May 14, and to 
support them the young dead peach trees that were 
quite branchy were set. The onion sets were used as 
needed, the remainder being pulled on the 15th and 
the ground planted to celery. A trench was dug one 
foot deep and wide, and filled in five inches with good 
rich soil. The plants were set up to the stems and a 
little ridge made along the center of the row so that 
in hard, dashing rains the water would run ofr to the 
sides of the trench, thus saving the soil near the plants 
from settling down hard and baking around them. The 
plants were set six inches apart in the row. 

The first peas were picked July 1, the early cab- 
bage was ready by the 15th, and the lima beans by the 
jnd of the month. The tomatoes were staked the 12th 
by driving stakes on each side of the row, and on these 
nailing poles abou* one foot from the ground. They 
began ripening August 8, and by the 14th, fifteen 
pounds had been picked and sold at three cents per 
pound. The celery was watered frequently, the water 



I48 PRIZE GARDENING 

being hauled in a barrel in the morning and left stand- 
ing all day in the sun to warm up. The celery was 
banked the middle of September and the onions pulled 
and harvested. 

This garden was not large, nor was there a great 
variety of vegetables raised, yet it seemed to satisfy 
the needs of Mr. Roberts' family. If it had contained 
beets, beans, sweet corn, squashes, cucumbers, carrots, 
lettuce, melons and more peas, it would have been more 
satisfactory to most people, yet there are some who do 
not care for these vegetables and are satisfied with a 
more limited variety. The productions of the garden 
were not large, and yet when spread over the entire 
season, they gave considerable " green stuff " to mix 
with the " pork and potatoes," which constitute the diet 
of so many farmers' families. There were gathered 
eighty-six dozen radishes, forty-five dozen of green 
and three and one-fourth bushels of onions, one peck 
of peas, sixteen head of cabbage, sixty-five pounds of 
tomatoes, one and one-half pints of cured lima beans, 
five dozen green and two pecks of pickling peppers, 
two ounces sweet pea seed and many flowers, forty- 
eight dozen salsify and fifty bunches of celery. The 
value of these products amounted to thirteen dollars 
and thirty-six cents. The labor expended on garden 
was six days, four and one-fourth hours, and with two 
and one-half hours of team work amounted to eight 
dollars and sixty cents. The manure was valued at 
thirty cents, the seeds at eighty-five cents, while one 
dollar would be a fair price for the use of the tools and 
the land. This brings the cost up to ten dollars and 
seventy-five cents, and leaves a net profit of two dollars 
and sixty-one cents, and pay for his own labor which 
he could not have earned otherwise. In reality the 
garden earned him ten dollars and eighty-six cents. 



YOUNG HORTICULTURISTS 



149 



The net profit was at the rate of ninety-two dollars and 
thirty-five cents per acre. 

Mr. Roberts closes his report by saying : " The 
work has been interesting and instructive, and if I had 
nothing else but the knowledge gained to show for my 
few days' w r ork I would feel amply repaid for my 
efforts. The garden has proved both pleasurable and 




A LARGE EXHIBIT BY A SMALL GARDENER 



profitable. It was profitable to me because I noted 
carefully the results of my experiments and stowed 
them away in my memory for use in the years to come. 
It was profitable to the family because it furnished a 
liberal supply of vegetables all summer." 

An Enterprising Youth of the Hawkeye state, 
Willie Fay of Independence, Iowa, secured one of the 
regular prizes of five dollars for his garden story. His 



i5o 



PRIZE GARDENING 



one-third acre produced vegetables valued at forty- 
three dollars and eighty-five cents. He applied four 
loads of barn manure and one load of hen manure. 
The wheel hoe, he thinks, enabled him sometimes to 
accomplish a day's work in two hours. Melons were 
the most successful crop, and he saved plenty of seed 
for another year. Between the severe drouth and some 
robber cows which ate twenty head of cabbages, Willie 
had his troubles, but father and brother helped take care 




WALTER R. PALMER 



of the garden, and the owner was one of the few juve- 
nile prize winners. 

A Boy Gardener Who Won a five-dollar prize is 
Walter R. Palmer, Victoria, British Columbia. Some 
of the work was done by a Chinaman at seventy-five 
cents a day. But another phase of the Chinese prob- 
lem proved unfavorable to profits, since Walter com- 
plains that " so many Chinamen here maxe their living 
by growing and peddling fresh vegetables that it does 
not pay white people to grow them for sale." Such 



YOUNG HORTICULTURISTS 151 

crops as lettuce, cabbage, spinach and asparagus seemed 
to thrive best. The area of one thousand six hundred 
and twenty square feet produced two dollars and thirty- 
five cents worth, and is charged with a cost of only 
fifty-five cents, but this amount could scarcely have 
been meant to include the sixteen hours' labor which 
is itemized in the account. 



CHAPTER XI 



GARDEN IRRIGATION 



Water was applied artificially to a very large num- 
ber of the competing gardens, some using it only at 
time of transplanting, or to hasten seed germination. 
But at least one in ten of the prize winners made 
irrigation an important feature. 

In the older irrigated sections like California and 
Colorado, an artificial supply of moisture for fruit and 
vegetables appears almost a matter of course ; so much 
so that in some instances the narrators failed to explain 
the method intelligibly, leaving the process to be 
inferred from the brief allusions made in the daily 
notes. In all such cases it is probable that the water 
was turned into the furrows from the irrigating ditch 
by the simple methods hereafter described. Given an 
abundance of water, irrigation is by no means a diffi- 
cult and complicated operation. As the accounts show, 
the time required for the work is brief as compared 
with other garden operations, and anyone with a fair 
amount of general information on the subject should 
have no trouble even at the start. 

Often a good chance for irrigation has been neg- 
lected because of failure to realize the immense advan- 
tage which a good water supply gives the grower of 
fruit and vegetables. Even in sections where the rain- 
fall is large enough for the common farm crops, many 
prominent gardeners declare irrigation a positive neces- 
sity for intensive gardening on a large scale. In the 
semi-arid parts of the west and northwest, irrigation 




525 
w 

Q 

< 

O 

Q 
W 

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o 

p— I 

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H 
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154 



PRIZE GARDENING 



is becoming firmly established and many of the prize 
winners there found it a great aid. 

Water Saved the Garden. — A very fine garden 
was grown by W. T. Brickey, Hitchcock county, 
Nebraska, from whose description a good idea may be 
obtained of the special difficulties and methods. 

Owing to the hot summer weather and the light 
rainfall in this section, says Mr. Brickey, it has 




A NEBRASKA GARDEN SPOT BEFORE IRRIGATION 



been found impracticable to grow a garden, only 
in exceptional years, without irrigation. In addi- 
tion to this, of late years we have been afflicted 
with a pest of grasshoppers, thus making the grow- 
ing of a garden increasingly difficult, so much so 
that few farmers even attempt growing anything 
in this line more than Irish potatoes, sweet corn 



GARDEN IRRIGATION 155 

and perhaps watermelons, and even with these, 
failures have been more numerous than otherwise. To 
combat the drouth and outwit the grasshoppers are 
therefore the problems to be solved. 

I level the garden by using a common road scraper, 
taking soil off high places and filling in low places, 
thus preparing the ground for irrigation. 

The system of irrigation will be easily understood 
from the accompanying photograph. It contemplates 
only the use of surplus water not needed by the stock. 
The well is sixty-one feet deep. The pump is an ordi- 
nary force pump, two and one-half cylinder, placed 
two feet from the bottom of the well, with one and 
one-fourth-inch pipe. The windmill is a Perkins ten- 
foot, straight stroke, wood wheel, mounted on a twenty- 
two and one-half-foot steel tower. The water is forced 
through an inch pipe, from a back cock in the pump, 
to a trough in the milkhouse, keeping the milk cool and 
sweet during the hottest weather, and from thence over- 
flows into a common round stock tank ten feet in 
diameter. Water not required for the stock was 
siphoned out with a three-quarter-inch hose and con- 
ducted to the garden. Frequently the hose was attached 
directly to the pump, but this was not so satisfactory, 
as the supply of water was not so constant, and resulted 
in the upper end of the row getting most of the water, 
except when the wind blew strong and steady. How- 
ever, I satisfied myself that cold water, taken directly 
from the well, was as good for irrigation as that that 
had become warm by .standing in the tank. The photo- 
graph shows the process of irrigating. The ditch 
between the rows was made by the cultivator, the teeth 
being set close together, and the water running from 
the tank through the hose into the ditch. Irrigation 
was given at any time day or night that the water could 



GARDEN IRRIGATION 157 

be secured. The dry, porous subsoil easily absorbed 
any surplus. The difficulty was in getting enough. 

I have experimented in a limited way in the details 
of irrigation. You will observe in the photograph two 
galvanized iron water tanks in which water has been 
kept during the season. Cow dung has been soaked 
in the water, which reached the plant in a liquid form. 
At intervals when hoeing I have poured it around a 
hill of pumpkins, a hill of watermelons, a hill of squash, 
a hill of corn, a hill of potatoes, a hill of cucumbers, a 
hill of cabbage, ten onions, ten beets, a mangel wurzel, 
a rutabaga, and instead of pouring the water on the hill, 
a basin was made in the ground near the vegetables 
that would hold one pail of water ; two holes were made 
leading from the basin into the manure directly under 
the plants. Surface watering causes the earth to crust 
over and allows the roots to run near the surface. 
Unless the top of the ground is kept wet the plants 
suffer for want of moisture. My method sends the 
water under the hill and the roots dive deep to reach it. 
This method makes strong, vigorous, productive vines 
and plants, and the yield one-third larger and one-third 
more in quantity. The hill of pumpkins gave one 
pumpkin weighing eighty-one pounds, watermelon 
weighing forty pounds, squash, corn, potatoes, cucum- 
ber, cabbage, onions, beets, carrots, all were one-third 
larger than those not irrigated. 

The ideal preparation of ground, according to my 
view, would be to begin in the fall and thoroughly 
pulverize the surface as deep as possible with the disk 
harrow. Then plow six or seven inches deep and 
repeat the pulverizing. Plow again crosswise, leaving 
the ground just as turned over by the plow until spring, 
then repeat the pulverizing process. This would give 
a deep seedbed thoroughly fined from top to bottom. 

Irrigation should have been given during the early 



I58 PRIZE GARDENING 

part of the season when the windmill was standing idle. 
I did not understand then what an enormous amount 
of water is required for cabbage, and as frequent light 
showers were falling, I supposed the ground was suffi- 
ciently wet. 

In irrigating tomatoes, a ditch was first made with 
the cultivator in the middle between the rows, using the 
three teeth set close together, or sometimes the large 
tooth alone. One end of the hose was then placed in 
the ditch and the other in the tank, making a siphon. 
The water was allowed to run in this ditch from two 
to six hours, according to the supply of water available 
and the requirements of the balance of the garden. 

A net profit of about fifty-four dollars is recorded 
from Mr. Brickey's garden, but he believes that the 
experience gained and the pleasure of watching and 
caring for the crops amounted to far more real value 
than the cash balance. A good garden was so rare in 
his section that visitors came in considerable numbers. 
His calendar, condensed, is of interest as showing a 
gardener's routine in the semi-arid section : 

February. — Made first order for seeds. 

March. — Constructed a hotbed and cold frame No. 
1, starting in these frames cabbages, lettuce, onions, 
tomatoes and radishes. Also began the preparation 
of the soil of the garden. 

April. — Completed preparation of soil, trans- 
planted cabbage from cold frame to open ground, sent 
second order for seeds, sowed onions, lettuce and rad- 
ishes in the garden, constructed a cold frame for sprout- 
ing sweet potatoes in the bed, began irrigating the early 
cabbage, bought drill, wheel hoe, etc., fifty feet of hose 
and a lawn sprinkler. 

May. — Completed transplanting early cabbage, 
began transplanting tomatoes to open ground, sowed 
early peas, early beans and planted early potatoes and 



GARDEN IRRIGATION 159 

early sweet corn, transplanted onions from cold frame 
to open ground, made second sowing of peas, made a 
cold frame for planting melons and planted seed 
therein, sowed cabbage in open ground for late cabbage, 
cultivated all growing crops. 

June. — Transplanted melon plants and planted 
melon seed in open ground, completed transplanting 
tomato plants, sowed late beans, thinned onions, trans- 
planted sweet potato plants and late cabbage plants, 
applied insecticide for cabbage worms, cultivated all 
growing crops and irrigated as far as possible. 

July. — Sowed turnips, also onions for sets, culti- 
vated growing crops and irrigated. 

August and September. — Ditto. 

October. — Ditto. Also removed all remaining 
crops from the ground, completing the season's 
operations. 

In the Lozver San Gabriel Valley, a part of one 
of the most famous irrigated sections of the Pacific 
coast, was a thrifty and profitable garden managed by 
E. H. Ashley, Rivera, California, winner of the 
seventh prize. 

The garden is in Walnut irrigation district, obtain- 
ing water from the San Gabriel river by means of a 
dam, the water being conveyed in dirt ditches. The 
preceding winter and spring (our season of rain) being 
exceptionally dry, irrigation has been practiced this 
year more or less all the time. In ordinary seasons, 
however, irrigation is resorted to from about May I 
to the end of September. The water right is paid for 
with the land, the water being practically free to the 
users, a nominal charge being made of fifteen cents per 
hour for a " head " of one hundred to one hundred and 
fifty " miners' inches " (or one thousand one hundred 
and sixty to one thousand seven hundred and forty 
gallons per minute). For garden purposes have used 



l60 PRIZE GARDENING 

but half a head at seven and one-half cents per hour, 

The bare land itself, including water right, would 
sell for three hundred dollars per acre (the contestant 
having a mortgage of two hundred and twenty dollars, 
per acre on ten acres). It would rent at about twenty- 
five dollars per acre. Interest at eight per cent per 
annum net. The whole garden equals eighty-nine- 
one-hundredths of an acre, value two hundred and 
sixty-seven dollars. 

The work of vegetable growing in California is 
mostly in the hands of Chinese, who are behind the 
times in regard to methods of work, which makes their 
competition less keen than is usually supposed. The 
climate of southern California is not quite so favorable 
for vegetable growth as for trees. Plants take much 
longer to come to maturity than in the south or east, 
owing to the cold nights through the spring, causing 
the ground to warm up very slowly. 

The planting season in this almost winterless 
climate began the preceding October, when cabbages 
were sown in seedbed for early transplanting. Garden 
work during December, January and February was 
much like that of March, April and May in the east. 
Asparagus, rhubarb, turnips, radishes and onions were 
ready to be gathered in March. Tender plants were 
set in April and grew slowly because of cool nights. 
Tomato seeds were drilled in the open ground, April 
12, setting the drill the same as for radish seed, which 
proved about thick enough, and the plants were ready 
for setting May 25. 

Rainfall from December 20 to November 21 was 
only seven to eight inches ; a rather dry season for the 
locality. The time spent irrigating was twenty-two 
and one-half hours, charged at one dollar and sixty- 
nine cents or seven and one-half to eight cents per hour 
for the water, half a head being used for the garden. 



GARDEN IRRIGATION 



161 



This quantity is from five hundred and eighty to eight 
hundred and seventy gallons per minute, a sufficient 
flow to flood parts ox the garden when desired, as 
shown in the picture of the onion patch under irriga- 
tion. When putting in a second crop the ground was 
usually flooded as a preliminary step. The onions and 
the berries were irrigated six times, or monthly from 




IRRIGATING EGG PLANTS 



February to September, from one-half to one hour each 
time. Most crops were flooded an hour at planting 
time. Tomatoes and cowpeas were watered once, sweet 
potatoes and cabbage twice, peppers four times, egg 
plants five, onions and fruit six times. One of the 
illustrations shows the irrigation of Qgg plants, in 
furrows between the rows. 



l62 PRIZE GARDENING 

Egg plant seems to have been the best paying 
crop, having sold about three thousand seven hundred 
pounds of fruit at average price of two and one-third 
cents per pound for eighty-seven dollars and twenty- 
six cents, and a net profit of twenty-four dollars. Pep- 
pers averaged about the same price per pound. Toma- 
toes brought fifteen cents per hundred and sweet 
potatoes one to two and three-fourths cents per pound. 

The net profit of this garden was fifty-three dol- 
lars and five cents, but as Mr. Ashley did all the labor 
himself his actual returns, after paying bills, were two 
hundred and ten dollars and twenty-eight cents. 

In the Mountain Section. — Among the difficulties 
which hinder the gardener in Idaho are the cold sum- 
mer nights and frosts, which conditions make such 
crops as tomatoes, egg plants and sweet corn hard to 
raise, but correspondingly high in price. Mrs. W. S. 
Jackson, Idaho Falls, Idaho, tried raising these tender 
vegetables in an irrigated garden, but frost killed most 
of them. Other years she has had better success. The 
hardy plants like cabbage did well and this vegetable 
occupied a greater part of the garden. Receipts from 
the tract of one acre were one hundred and ninety 
dollars and two cents ; expenses, one hundred and three 
dollars and twenty-seven cents ; profit, eighty-six dol- 
lars and seventy-five cents. Writes Mrs. Jackson : 

After we had plowed our garden we harrowed it 
crosswise of the plowing, after which we rolled it. 
Then we take a lister plow and ridge it ; that is, we 
plow a furrow about every four feet. This is to make 
the ditches for irrigating. As this leaves the ridges too 
high and uneven, we take the harrow again and slant 
the teeth pretty well back and go over the ground 
lengthwise of the rows. Now it is ready to seed ; with 
a drill it does not take long. We do not use the marker 
on these ridges, but take the drill and keep it as near 



GARDEN IRRIGATION 163 

six inches from the edge as possible, putting two rows 
on each ridge. The ridges are just wide enough to 
average four to the rod. We wait for the plants to 
appear before we do any irrigating, as that chills the 
ground too much for the seeds to come well, and we 
can depend on enough spring moisture to bring 
them up. 

When transplanting the cabbage to the garden, we 
set the plants two feet apart in the row and two rows 
on each ridge, setting the plants in the second row so 
they are halfway between the plants in the first row. 
As soon as a ridge is completed, the water is turned 
into the ditches each side of it and allowed to run until 
the ground is thoroughly soaked. Then they are 
watered about once a week after that, depending some- 
what on the weather. 

Taught by Practice. — After twenty years' expe- 
rience irrigating garden crops, L. Matteson, Sturges, 
South Dakota, thinks the best plan is to lay out the 
garden in diagonal check rows as illustrated. The 
water can be turned in either direction and the crops 
may be cultivated in three directions. Some crops, 
especially tomatoes, are planted closely in double rows, 
leaving a double space between each pair of rows. 
Water is let down the narrow space between the two 
rows, thus, in Mr. Matteson's opinion, saving one-half 
the water. To prevent tomato rot, he irrigates thor- 
oughly when the clusters begin to form. Prices for 
tomatoes in his market were one to two cents a pound. 
Irrigation every ten days was found also to check the 
lice and worms on cabbages, but if the lice were once 
allowed a start the wetting afterward did no good. 

A Small Irrigated Garden, fifty-four by sixty feet, 
entered by S. W. Damon, Tehama county, California, 
produced twelve dollars' worth of vegetables at a cost 
of five dollars and sixty-seven cents. The land cost 



GARDEN IRRIGATION 1 65 

forty dollars per acre and twenty dollars per acre mure 
to clear off trees and brush. Soil is heavy clay loam 
nine feet deep. 

For irrigation, the land was laid off in beds three 
feet wide and water turned into the furrows between 
the beds. These furrows joined at right angles an 
irrigating trench which in turn drew its supply from 
a flume running along one side of the garden. Water 
when irrigation was needed was drawn from an inch 
hole bored in the flume where the trench joined it. The 
supply to the furrows was controlled by a board with 
two half-inch holes in it at junction of each furrow 
with the trench. When irrigating, the inch hole in the 
flume is unstopped, the water rushes into the trench 
through the small holes into the furrows between the 
beds, soaking into them and thus watering the plants. 
By plugging some of the small holes the flow can be 
limited or distributed as desired. Times of irrigation 
averaged about once in ten days, occupying ten to 
twenty minutes each time. Whole labor of irrigating 
was valued at forty-eight cents. 

Watered from a Well. — A good well, a windmill 
and some piping and hose made a successful garden of 
D. S. Carnahan's quarter acre in Stafford county, Kan- 
sas. Value of product was sixty-seven dollars and 
sixty-eight cents; cost, twenty-six dollars; net, forty- 
one dollars and sixty-eight cents. Previous attempts 
without irrigation had proved failures. 

To insure success in this part of Kansas, writes 
Mr. Carnahan, select ground where it can be irrigated. 
Then thoroughly prepare the ground by plowing deep ; 
the deeper the better. Prepare the seedbed by making 
it very fine, as almost all garden seed are small and 
much depends on getting them well started. Cultivate 
the surface well, let no weeds grow. Do not let them 



'fi+U tf O A/ 




GARDEN IRRIGATION 1 67 

get high enough to pull with the hand, but rake them 
out as soon as they show their heads. 

In watering, the best results can be had by wetting 
the ground well, then letting it alone until it needs 
water again. Do not put a little on every day or so. 
This rule will apply to almost all garden stuff except 
tomatoes. A good plan with tomatoes is to keep them 
growing nicely until the fruit is well set, then wet them 
a great deal. 

Sold to the Miners.— A location not far from the 
gold mines of Cripple Creek gave Philip H. Sheridan, 
Colorado, a good market for the surplus produce of his 
half-acre irrigated garden. Sales amounted to seventy- 
two dollars and cost was fifty-two. He writes : 

The garden patch is adobe soil and contains a little 
alkali. We depend on irrigation altogether to grow 
our crops, but occasionally we have rains that help the 
crops some. Each time I irrigate the garden I charge 
one-half hour against it. The water is allowed to run 
on the garden nearly all day, so there is very little to 
do except to turn the water on and turn it off again 
when it is wet enough. Wages here are one dollar 
and fifty cents per day for men boarding themselves, 
one dollar and twenty-five cents for women and three 
dollars for team and man. I have from three to eight 
boarders during the season, and we consume nearly 
all the product, but any surplus we have brings a ready 
sale at a good price. 

A Three-acre Irrigated Garden was managed with 
considerable profit by J. H. Crowley, Rocky Ford, Colo- 
rado. He used land one year from sod, valued at one 
hundred dollars per acre. Ten large loads of sheep 
manure and six barrels of hen manure were applied. 
The poultry manure was first soaked in a pit and then 
distributed by turning the irrigating ditch through the 



l68 PRIZE GARDENING 

pit. The effect of the liquid manure began to show in 
thirty-six hours. 

Water was supplied the garden from a branch 
lateral ditch running at right angles to the seventy long 
rows which comprised the garden. Through inch- 
square openings the water was conducted between the 
rows along a small furrow made for it with a shovel 
plow or with a hand plow with furrowing attachment. 
Irrigation was performed about once in ten days, occu- 
pying only about fifteen minutes morning or night. 
Income from the garden was two hundred and thirty- 
two dollars and ninety-seven cents ; paid for seed, 
twelve dollars and eighty-five cents ; for manure, five 
dollars ; labor, thirty-two dollars and ten cents ; interest 
on land, thirty dollars ; incidentals, nine dollars and 
seventy-five cents; total cost, eighty-nine dollars and 
seventy cents ; profit, one hundred and forty-three dol- 
lars and twentv-seven cents. 



CHAPTER XII 

IRRIGATION IN THE EAST 

Several of the best eastern gardeners felt that 
abundance of water was needed to make their work an 
absolute success. Asserts L. E. Dimock of Connecticut : 
" Irrigation facilities are much to be desired. Capital 
invested in windmill, pumps, etc., for the purpose of 
forcing water into a position that can be utilized would 
be a profitable investment ; for in a dry season the sup- 
ply of vegetables is short in general, and it is then that 
good prices are obtained. 

" The hill that grew the largest pumpkin, eighty- 
one pounds, was watered three times a week through 
a wooden spout inserted in the hill before being filled, 
reaching the bottom. One pail of water once in three 
days was poured into the spout ; in this way the water 
reached the bottom of the hill. The moisture being 
taken up by the roots is the correct way of irrigation. 
Water poured on the top of the soil causes the earth to 
crust over and retard the growth of plants. Moisture 
deep down causes the roots to run deep and by thus 
doing gathers nourishment. Hills thus treated pro- 
duced pumpkins of a size much larger than where no 
water was used." 

This chapter describes the several ambitious and 
systematic attempts made to secure proper conditions 
of moisture regardless of the season. Although the 
extra cost of outfit and labor was considerable, the 
watered gardens were usually very profitable. 

Watering a City Lot. — Worn-out, weedy, drouthy 
and generally demoralized land made a good garden 



170 



PRIZE GARDENING 



under good culture and the skillful irrigation methods 
of J. B. Reynolds, a successful contestant living in 
Burlington county, New Jersey. The location was 
house lot land on the edge of the city, and the soil had 
been " farmed to death " by cropping without fertiliz- 
ing, until weeds were the only crop that would flourish. 
The g arden was carefully planned. The plot of two 




FRUIT TREES IN THE GARDEN 

thousand two hundred and forty square feet produced 
vegetables worth twenty-nine dollars and fifty-four 
cents at a cost of nineteen dollars and ninety-two cents 
for labor and seven dollars and fifty-eight cents for 
other expenses, leaving two dollars and four cents 
profit. The irrigation is of special interest as described 
by Mr. Reynolds : 



172 



PRIZE GARDENING 



When I first began gardening three years ago, 
particular attention was paid to the laying out of the 
garden for the purpose of irrigation. The ground 
originally sloped from a to d and b to c, d and c 
being about eighteen inches lower than a and b. From 
a to & it was practically level, while at the other end 
it sloped from d to c. In laying out the garden I 
raked and moved the soil so as to reverse the slope at 
each end. The result was if water is let in at a and 
directed south in the west path, which is depressed 
about three inches, it will flow to b, then to c, and so 





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IRRIGATION PLAN OF J. B. REYNOLDS'S GARDEN 

along the east path to d. If I want to irrigate the 
plants of any given row, I put a dam in the west path 
opposite a point between this row and the next, and 
cut open the east side of the path opposite this row. 
The water will then run down the patch to the dam, 
and so down the row and out of the garden at the outlet 
as indicated. One advantage of this plan is that I can 
irrigate on a hot day without scalding. If I want to 
water a row of radishes, for instance, I would first take 
the Firefly plow, set it down two holes, and strike a 



IRRIGATION IN THE EAST 173 

furrow along the north side of the row, throwing the 
soil away from the plants, then turn on a gentle stream 
that will just nicely soak around the plants. After it 
is well wet in, run the plow the reverse way, throwing 
the soil back against the plants. If the soil becomes 
too wet, it is thrown back as soon as dry enough. The 
main point is to have a gentle stream. A fast one will 
overflow the furrow and run too fast and simply set 
the surface. This leaves the roots to grow near the 
surface and the plants show the effect of a hot sun. A 
slow stream soaks down, and I have often saturated 
the ground under the plant while the surface is yet dry. 

Another advantage of this system of irrigation is 
the ease with which it is done. I can start in the water 
on one side of the garden and go to work on the other, 
only stopping occasionally to change the water from 
one row to another. I watered the row of early cab- 
bage more than the others, and had them mature and 
out of the way in time for a crop of celery, while the 
last heads in the adjoining rows were not matured until 
a month after the celery was set out. The greatest 
advantage of irrigation is that you can get the water 
when it is needed, and do not have to wait for rain. 
Moles caused a great deal of annoyance, for many times 
I have found the water running down a mole hill 
instead of following along a row of plants. By using 
a blunt stick about one and one-half inches in diameter 
to punch down the earth the hole will soon be 
blocked up. 

" Water, Soluble Fertilizers and Irrigation make 
a team that will work in dry weather," concludes F. W. 
Kilbourne, New Brunswick, New Jersey, thirteenth 
regular prize winner, whose garden of one and three- 
fourths acres paid him seven hundred and fifteen dol- 
lars and fifty-three cents at a cost of eighty dollars and 



174 PRIZE GARDENING 

sixty-three cents, the expense account not including 
cost of labor. 

At a cost of ten dollars and fifty cents for three 
hundred feet of piping, the garden was connected with 
the city water main, and the water was distributed by 
hose. Water cost about one cent per barrel. " Beets, 
cauliflower and lettuce showed most quickly the effects 
of watering ; the onions least of all, although the water- 
ing saved them. The farmers around had their onion 
crops all burned up by the drouth." Upon six rows of 
Parker Earle strawberries, the effect of watering in 
furrows opened between the rows with a hoe was to 
immediately increase the size of the berries. Berries 
not irrigated were a failure. 

By " soluble fertilizers " Mr. Kilbourne refers to 
chemicals, mostly nitrate of soda, bone black and 
muriate of potash. These are not mixed, but are 
applied separately and worked into the soil. The potash 
is applied in winter or early spring, better results being 
obtained than from summer application. Bone black 
proved very good for radishes, and nitrate of soda for 
spinach. For most crops the three substances were 
applied in something like equal quantities. The land 
had been used for truck growing for the past twenty 
years and had been fertilized wholly with chemicals 
for three years past, yet the crops had constantly 
increased. 

It was found that bordeaux mixture would drive 
potato bugs from Ggg plants, while wrapping in paper 
saved the tgg fruit from a freeze. Lima beans were 
started in deep boxes in a greenhouse May 10, and 
picking began July 12. Onions too small to sell were 
used for pickling or saved for sets. Cauliflower with 
high fertilizing and irrigation proved very profitable, 
bringing eight to fifteen cents per head. It was a 
second crop. The twenty-one rows cost fourteen dol- 



IRRIGATION IN THE EAST 175 

lars and fifty cents for chemicals, seventeen dollars for 
labor and fifteen dollars for commission on sales. There 
were sold one thousand four hundred and seventy head 
for one hundred and fifty-eight dollars and sixty cents. 
Profit on cauliflower, one hundred dollars and seventy- 
four cents, or nearly five dollars per row. Quoting 
from Mr. Kilbourne's journal: 

June 24, plowed, harrowed and rolled strawberry 
ground for cabbage. On the 26th, marked out and 
let the water down the furrows. After the furrows 
were filled, spread broadcast fifty pounds muriate of 
potash, one hundred pounds bone black and one hun- 
dred pounds nitrate, most of the fertilizer falling in 
the furrows. We then harrowed lightly to mix the 
fertilizer and partly fill the furrows, then set the plants 
in the depression left, just covering enough to make 
them stand up. The plants were set three by two feet, 
then cultivated. It was the best cabbage I ever grew ; 
not a single head missing and many of them were too 
large to go in a sixteen-quart basket. The six rows, 
one hundred and twenty in each row, were sold for 
three dollars a hundred. The rest of the plants I set 
on ground outside the garden that was heavily ma- 
nured. They did well, but were not as good as those 
in the garden. I cut all the cabbage on this piece by 
the first of October and immediately plowed and har- 
rowed in one hundred pounds of nitrate and sowed 
round-leaf spinach, which was by November 20 of a 
good size to winter over. 

The celery plants in the seedbed were large 
enough by the last week in June to prick out, and we set 
them on a piece of ground where they were to be 
planted finally. After plowing a strip ten feet wide 
and two hundred and forty feet long we spread one 
hundred pounds of nitrate and one hundred pounds 
bone black. We harrowed thoroughly. Then with a 



1^6 PRIZE GARDENING 

boy to bring- the plants, my man and I set them in rows 
the short way of the piece, two inches apart, and the 
rows were one foot apart, so they could be worked. 
The boy brought plants faster than we could set them 
out, so he had time to water the plants as soon as they 
were set. The piece held fourteen thousand plants, 
which we were two days setting out. They should be 
set with care; if the root is doubled in planting, the 
plants never amount to anything. 

The ground was in fine condition July 20, and we 
set eighteen rows in one day, four hundred to the row, 
setting in shallow furrows. Each plant had a big 
bunch of roots holding a ball of dirt. We watered the 
bed thoroughly before lifting the plants. When the 
plants were set we cultivated close to them, filling the 
furrows. We had fine weather for celery ; not too hot 
and lots of rain, and they grew finely. When the plants 
were fairly started, I spread four hundred pounds bone 
black, three hundred pounds nitrate of soda and one 
hundred and fifty pounds muriate of potash, cultivating 
in. Cultivated once a week until September 21. On 
September 5, spread one hundred pounds nitrate of 
soda between the rows. Commenced banking every 
other row October 2. 

Another Jersey Water Garden (Alfred P. Edge). 
— The garden is situated about fifty feet from our 
kitchen door, and to a busy farmer this is very impor- 
tant. The busiest man has many an odd moment, 
waiting for meals, etc., when he can easily pick up a 
hoe and not having far to go can do much work and 
not miss the time. I have a windmill at the kitchen 
door to supply the house and barns ; this I also use to 
flood my garden in dry times. We almost always have 
a drouth sometime during summer. The soil is natu- 
rally a heavy clay, but by careful handling its nature 
has been changed. My fence when I came was a 



IRRIGATION IN THE EAST 



177 



dilapidated paling with a one-foot board at the bottom ; 
I knocked off the palings, but left the bottom board. 
I then tacked on woven chicken wire three feet high, 
and thus have a good fence four feet high and one that 
never gets out of order. If a chicken gets over, as they 
do sometimes in the spring, I at once shoot the chicken 




INSIDE PLANT FOR GARDEN IRRIGATION 

and the trouble ends, as the others seem to take the hint. 
The garden is all covered at present with a rank growth 
of crimson clover. This I planted last fall at various 
times as I worked each crop the last time. This I have 
done for several years, In the spring I mow the ground 



178 PRIZE GARDENING 

at least twice before it is plowed, and feed it to my 
cows and thus get a flavor of grass in our butter long 
before pasture is ready. Plowing the green crop under 
has a wonderful effect upon a clay soil, as it lightens 
it up. The soil where the clover is growing can be 
worked much earlier than where the ground has 
been bare. 

Owing to the fact that my garden has a slight fall 
from the upper end, it is very easy for me to irrigate 
any part of it. Some time ago I purchased a lot of 
second-hand inch pipe and valves for two dollars, giv- 
ing me enough pipe for my garden twice over. The 
pipe I laid from my windmill fifty feet away, on the 
surface of the ground. The pipe has five branches ; 
each branch has a valve cut-off, and there is also a cut- 
off in the main pipe between each branch. I have a 
barrel at the end of the pipe into which the pipe dis- 
charges. This barrel I always keep full, and from it 
I fill my water pots for special sprinkling. 

When there comes a dry time I start the wind- 
mill, open the branch I wish to use, make a small chan- 
nel with my hoe down the whole length between the 
two rows I wish to water. The water then runs by 
natural fall gradi ally to the bottom of the garden, and 
I can go away and leave it several hours at a time. Of 
course the fall is very gradual or it would not work ; 
very much fall would wash. The windmill I have for 
my supply of water for the house and barns. It pumps 
from a well at the house into a box at the kitchen porch 
The box has two outlets, one running to the barn and 
the other to the garden ; when the water is running to 
the barn I stop up the other pipe. When things are 
well soaked I usually stop the flow and with my hoe 
I draw some dry earth back and fill up the gutter; 
otherwise I find the ground bakes when the water has 
been running, on exposure to the sun. 



IRRIGATION IN THE EAST 



179 



The only way I think I could improve on this plan 
would be to sink ordinary drain tile a few inches below 
the surface and run water through these. They would 
leak at the joints, then there would be no trouble with 
the ground baking. This I intend to try next year in 
my celery bed. With us if we do not have some easy 




CELERY, DENIM HOSE BETWEEN ROWS 



v/ay of using water our gardens simply dry up, as 
we always have a drouth during the summer. This 
evening, May 7, I started the windmill, and with ten 
minutes' work with a hoe had the water running the 
whole length of my double row of peas, and down 
through the strawberries below. It would be an im- 
provement if I had a bank in the garden so that I could 



l8o PRIZE GARDENING 

have an even flow ; when the wind is light the windmill 
does not pump fast enough. 

I ran the water down the whole length of my peas 
May 29 to freshen them up, also down row of straw- 
berries. I simply draw a hoe down where I want the 
water to run, taking only a few minutes. I start the 
windmill and go away and leave it an hour or so. This 
soaks the ground for more than a foot on each side of 
the trench, afterward cover the trench to stop baking. 
I do not often water the whole garden in this way ; 
only such things as really suffer in bearing, as peas, 
strawberries, egg plant, etc. Tomatoes I rarely water ; 
one year I overdid with my tomatoes and they went 
too much to vine. Water in the garden must be used 
with judgment. Because once in a while it is good, 
it does not follow that all the time is better. 

For watering my celery when the plants are small, 
before they begin to spread, I have a different plan. 
Two years ago I purchased several yards of denim 
and cut it into strips and stitched it into a hose about 
one and one-half inches in diameter, and closed at the 
lower end. T lay the hose along the bed between two 
rows of celery, having fastened one end to my water 
pipe. I start the water and go away ; the pipe fills up 
the hose and the water creeps out in small drops all 
along the denim hose. The advantage of this is that 
the water comes out quietly and gradually, and the 
ground does not bake after it. It also moistens the 
ground slowly and evenly all along the bed at once. 
I tried muslin hose, but that is too porous and let the 
water out too fast. Denim is just right. If hose is 
open at the lower end it will carry water wherever 
wanted. It only leaks when under pressure. This 
hose I do not use after plants have begun to spread, as 
it cannot be got between the rows. The hose lasts 



IRRIGATION IN THE EAST 



181 



several years and the material only costs eight cents 
a yard. I have used mine two years, and it is good yet. 
. I boarded in my two oldest rows of celery Septem- 
ber 7. I have a lot of old fence boards taken from a 
worn-out fence ; they are five feet long by one and one- 
half feet wide. These I put up close to the outside row, 
holding them in place by stakes. I then put boards 



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IRRIGATING CELERY 



in between the second and third rows, enclosing two 
rows ; between these two rows I have a small channel 
for water. The boards enclosing the two rows are one 
foot apart at the bottom and slope nearer together at 
the top. The celery leaves now reach a little above the 
top of the boards. This is only for the two rows I 
wish to bleach for immediate use ; the balance I simply 



l%2 PRIZE GARDENING 

enclose by a row of boards on all four sides. This 
does away with all hard work of hilling up and enables 
one to raise much more on the same ground, and of 
course one can afford to fertilize heavily. This plan 
may have some drawbacks, but if it has I have not 
found them out. I also cover the tops of the two rows 
with pieces of old carpet to more effectually shut off 
the light. This weather celery requires air, so I gen- 
erally throw off the carpet in the evening and replace 
it in the morning. 

Trees in the garden are a delusion and a snare. 
They are always in the way and take up more room 
than they are worth. If anyone should ask for advice 
I should say never plant a tree in your garden. There 
is only one thing I know of worse than a tree in a 
garden — and that is two trees. 

Everyone should have Japan wine berries ; they 
come after raspberries and are very fine for anyone 
who likes an acid berry. They are also excellent for 
jellies. 

I have raised two crops on nearly all my garden. 
On part of the ground I have planted the third crop. 
Where the celery bed was I first had early peas, fol- 
lowed by celery, which gave place to my trial straw- 
berry bed. 

To shade the plants as I transplant them until 
they get used to their new surroundings, I use four 
strips of muslin twelve feet long and nine inches wide, 
these I tack to small stakes, a stake at about every four 
feet. I stick them up along the row of plants set out 
and this shades them from the sun. The advantage of 
such an arrangement is that they are easily handled, 
and when not in use roll up into very small space and 
are always ready. Each day I set out just as many 
plants as I can protect. 



CHAPTER XIII 

EXPERIMENTAL GARDENING 

Novel features were encouraged by quite a large 
percentage of the contestants. In some cases the new 
departure lightened the value of the account, while in 
other cases the unfamiliarity of the gardener with new 
circumstances greatly hampered his efforts. Some 
tried new crops or new varieties, others chose unusual 
locations, while still others tested untried methods and 
conditions. Many of these are necessarily included in 
other chapters. 

Reclaiming a Waste. — The solid satisfaction of 
changing a half barren, stony, untilled tract of one- 
fourth acre into a good garden and incidentally win- 
ning the third Rawson special prize, belongs to C. P. 
Byington, Cairo, New York, whose little farm is 
located at the base of the Catskills, ten miles from the 
Hudson river. The description is from Mr. Bying- 
ton's account : 

Operations in the garden began when the owner 
moved on the place in the spring of 1897, and con- 
sisted mainly in the removal of dead cherry trees, 
currant bushes and stones; and incidentally, the re- 
moval of stones has formed the bulk of my operations 
ever since. As an evidence of what has been accom- 
plished along this line, there is a solid roadbed for a 
distance of three hundred feet in the highway fronting 
the property, composed wholly of the stones removed 
from the garden; these stones, covered with coarse 
gravel, forming one of the best bits of road in the 
town. During the two years since April, 1897, the 



I84 PRIZE GARDENING 

garden had received just what fertilizer was produced 
on the premises, viz., the product of one cow, one 
hundred hens and twenty ducks, and has yielded 
seventy bushels of mangels, carrots and turnips and 
three hundred heads of cabbage, besides all the peas, 
beans, sweet corn and other vegetables except potatoes 
used in a family of five. 

The soil is a shallow, sandy loam, containing a 
large admixture of small, shaly stones, and resting on 
a substratum of shale rock ; a light, porous, quick- 
growing soil, at its best in a wet season, but lacking 
those qualities and conditions favoring the conserva- 
tion of moisture. Another extract shows the thorough- 
ness with which this rather unpromising tract was 
worked for results : 

The entire plot was cultivated practically every 
other day except Sunday with double wheel hoes, set- 
ting the hoes quite close together and going astride 
the rows, cultivating both sides at the same time. The 
hoes not only cut every weed below the surface, but 
also break up the moisture capillarity, maintaining a 
fine loose mulch about an inch deep over the entire 
surface of the plot. Cultivation in this manner was 
begun as soon as the plants became visible, and con- 
tinued regularly throughout the season, or until the 
cultivator could no longer go through the rows without 
injury to the plants. When the foliage of plants 
became so large as to interfere with cultivation, the 
leaf guards were added, thus raising the foliage out of 
the way of injury, and enabling cultivation to be con- 
tinued much longer than otherwise could be done. 

Taking into consideration the unprecedented 
drouth and the shallow, porous nature of the soil in my 
garden, I have every reason to be satisfied with the 
results obtained. That my garden was a success is 
attested by the fact that I exhibited eighteen varieties 



EXPERIMENTAL GARDENING 185 

of vegetables (all of them available for table use when 
exhibited) at the county fair held August 22, 23 and 
24, winning the first prize awarded for the best exhi- 
bition of vegetables. 

The results obtained have confirmed my judgment 
in making conservation of moisture the principal con- 
sideration throughout all my garden operations from 
the very beginning, and unquestionably, to my mind, 
the one factor which contributed more to that end than 
all else was the regular daily cultivation of one-half 
the garden, going completely over the entire garden 
every other day. This I would in no wise have been 
able to accomplish without my hand cultivators, one 
and a half to two hours each day sufficing for a boy 
to do what, by ordinary methods, would require a man 
nearly all the time to do less satisfactorily. By this 
means a fine loose mulch was maintained over the 
entire garden, in which the moisture capillarity was 
constantly broken up, and the moisture in the soil pre- 
vented from reaching the surface to be dissipated by 
the sun and air. 

Total value of products, fifty-one dollars and 
ninety-six cents ; fertilizer, twelve dollars and twenty- 
five cents ; seed, five dollars and eighty-five cents ; plow- 
ing and planting, three dollars and fifty cents ; cultiva- 
tion by man at one dollar per day, seven dollars and 
sixty-one cents ; work by boy at fifty cents per day, 
four dollars and sixty cents ; interest on garden and 
tools, twelve dollars and sixty-six cents ; net profit, 
five dollars and forty-nine cents. 

A Melon Garden. — An interesting story was con- 
tributed by W. D. Hinds, Worcester county, Massa- 
chusetts, who is one of the best known peach growers 
in New England. He selected a half -acre patch which 
two years before was rough, rocky pasture, cleared off 
part of the rocks and set it to peaches. As a garden 



1 86 PRIZE GARDENING 

crop he chose muskmelons, as they would not injure 
the trees. A row of melons was carried between every 
two rows of peaches, also a hill between the trees in 
the rows. Spring tooth harrows and cultivators were 
found best for working such rocky land. Five loads 
of manure were used and one hundred pounds fertilizer. 
The plants were started in a cold frame from seed 
planted April 27. " Another year," writes Mr. Hinds, 
" I should start my seeds two weeks earlier, say April 
12, so as to get the melons all ripened by the middle of 
September. When the first cold days come, people 
stop buying, and there is no fun or profit in peddling 
fruit when people don't want it. I should also use 
more chemical fertilizer another time." 

Cutworms were poisoned with a little paris green 
and molasses mixed with eight quarts bran. The crop 
was peddled out, but was accounted at wholesale prices, 
and the total was one hundred and forty dollars and 
eighty-four cents. Charge was made for care of trees 
and credit allowed for their improvement The net 
profit was thirty-seven dollars and four cents. 

Testing the Soil. — A large handful of soil was 
taken from each of three places in the garden of E. R. 
Flagg of Massachusetts, and a test for acidity made 
with blue litmus paper. For this purpose a tiny book- 
let containing twenty-four slips of blue litmus paper, 
each about two and one-half inches long and one-half 
inch wide, was procured from a wholesale druggist for 
five cents. A little of the earth was placed in a cup 
and made into a thick paste by the addition of water. 
Then one end of a strip of litmus paper was pushed 
into the mud in the cup with the handle of a spoon, 
care being taken not to touch the paper with the moist 
fingers lest the color be changed thereby. The paper 
was allowed to remain in the mud for three minutes, 
when it was removed, the adhering mud rinsed off with 



EXPERIMENTAL GARDENING 



I8 7 



a very little water and the paper was pinned to the 
window to dry. The result showed the blue color of 
the litmus paper changed to a slate color with a reddish 
tinge, indicating a very moderate degree of acidity. 
Another sample of the soil was placed in a cup with 
sufficient ammonia to thoroughly wet and slightly cover 
it, and allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, when 
the liquid was found to be about as black as ink, indi- 
cating the presence of some organic acids. 




READY FOR BUSINESS 

Several Novel Features are included in the story 
of G. W. Everson, Montgomery county, New York, a 
Rawson prize winner. He gives the receipts of his 
one-thirteenth-acre garden by months : May, twenty- 
five cents ; June, three dollars and thirty-three cents ; 
July, five dollars and ninety-three cents ; August, four 
dollars and fifty-four cents; September ninety-seven 
cents; October, four dollars and fifty-two cents; 



l88 PRIZE GARDENING 

November, two dollars and eighteen cents; total, 
twenty-one dollars and seventy-two cents. The labor 
for the seven months beginning with April was, respec- 
tively, four hours, five and one-quarter hours, nineteen 
hours, ten and one-sixth hours, two hours, five and 
three-fourths hours, three and one-fourth hours ; total, 
sixty-eight hours, worth at fifteen cents, ten dollars 
and twenty cents. The owner thinks labor was much 
less because hand wheel implements were used. Poul- 
try got into the garden and the damage was placed at 
one dollar, mostly to turnips and cabbages. Lettuce 
was grown between the rows of onions with some 
saving of space. Mr. Everson mentions a wet spot in 
his garden where the soil was lumpy and did not work 
up well. The cause was a snowbank which did not 
melt till late. If the snowbank had been scattered he 
thinks the trouble might have been prevented. " To 
work a garden early in the spring," continues Mr. 
Everson, " the garden should be plowed in ridges in 
the fall." The wheel rake proved a labor-saver in clear- 
ing off small stones. The wheel hoe with cultivator 
teeth was just the thing for hoeing peas. Sulphur 
proved a remedy for black cabbage fleas. 

An Interesting Experiment with old, rough pas- 
ture land was tried by E. H. Boutelle of Worcester 
county, Massachusetts. The object was to make the 
crops pay for themselves and to take the profit in im- 
provement of the land. The first item of expense was 
clearing off the bush growth at a cost of over nine 
dollars. The vegetables were sold on a milk route. 
Hen manure was bought at fifty cents per bushel and 
barnyard manure at four dollars per cord. The best 
paying crops proved to be squashes, string beans and 
tomatoes. The net gain was nineteen dollars and sixty- 
seven cents, also improvement of land, reckoned at 
thirty-eight dollars for the one and one-twentieth acres. 



EXPERIMENTAL GARDENING 189 

A Beginner's Success. — Having left a city home 
and a mercantile business to take up an abandoned 
farm in Worcester county, Massachusetts, neither his 
inexperience nor unpreparedness dampened the zeal of 
F. R. Trask. His success shows that his confidence and 
courage were not unrewarded, the garden showing a 
net profit of forty-four dollars and fifty-eight cents 
from one and one-fourth acres, and his account secur- 
ing the seventh Rawson prize. Mr. Trask is evidently 
one of those men who bring from city to country an 
amount of vim and enterprise largely to offset their 
want of practice, and which enables them quickly to fit 
into the new conditions. His summary of lessons from 
his garden shows that he is taking time to think as well 
as to work : 

Have ground planted and manured if possible in 
fall before. Use fertilizer freely. Plant rows apart so 
as to use horse cultivator, and use it freely. Use a 
horse weeder, and keep using it. It kills weeds. It 
irrigates. Plant the largest variety possible in sufficient 
quantities for home use, and if intending to market, 
plant such crops as are sure in large quantities. Plant 
some of everything as early as possible, and then plant 
at frequent intervals as late as profitable. I was 
frightened by some cautious friend crying, "Frost; 
wait ! " Had I done as I wished and no frost came 
(as it does not at least half of the time) I would have 
been rewarded with early vegetables. On the other 
hand, had frost come, would not have lost much, for 
the second or third planting would have been safe. 

Sell all surplus products. If the family cannot use 
them, do not let them waste, when many families in a 
neighboring village or city will gladly take all and pay 
retail price. To such customers smaller quantities of 
more varieties may be sold than to the wholesale trade. 



190 



PRIZE GARDENING 



A year ago "how to dispose of produce" was a serious 
problem, but the year's experience has solved it for me, 
although a stranger in a strange land. It is no longer a 
question of market, but how to produce and carry it 
to market. 

Finally, read. Read agricultural papers, and read 
experiment station bulletins. Then think of what you 
read and what experience has taught, and after think- 
ing, be prompt to act along the lines of an educated 
intelligence. 




A WOMAN'S LUXURIANT GARDEN 



Sold Produce to Indians. — A two-acre garden at 
Hominy, Oklahoma, under the skillful management of 
Mrs. Lizzie Snyder, yielded about two hundred and 
seven dollars, at a round profit of one hundred and 
fifty dollars. Soil was sandy loam, second year from 
the virgin sod, and part of a tract rented from the 
Indians at one dollar and a half per acre. Expenses 
were low on account of cheapness of manure and labor, 
twenty-five loads manure costing only three dollars, 
and all labor by man, woman and team about 



EXPERIMENTAL GARDENING 191 

twenty-eight dollars. Customers were mostly the 
neighboring Osage Indians, who seem to have paid 
prices fully equal to the average in other sections. The 
account received one of the regular prizes. 

Saz'cd Her Own Seeds. — Seeds for her garden 
cost Mrs. Alice C. Strader, Columbia county, Wiscon- 
sin, only ten cents, since she has for years made a 
practice of saving many kinds of vegetable and flower 
seeds from specimens of her own growing. Free 
seeds from the United States department of agricul- 
ture also helped out at planting time. The seed item 
in this garden shows a balance on the credit side, since 
the value of those saved far exceeds those planted. 




MRS. ALICE C. STRADER 

The one-third acre yielded thirty-three dollars and 
twenty cents, of which the largest item was seven dol- 
lars for fourteen bushels of tomatoes. Labor cost 
eight dollars and twenty-five cents, and manure one 
dollar and sixty-five cents at twenty-five cents per load. 
Net profit, twenty-two dollars and eighty cents. 

High Feeding for Plants. — Interesting experi- 
ments have been carried on in plant feeding by G. M. 
Sherman of Hampden county, Massachusetts. His 
plan in brief is to supply liquid fertilizers by means 
of a porous jar buried a foot or more beneath the 
surface and filled from time to time through a tube 
projecting above the ground. 



I92 PRIZE GARDENING 

The roots of the plant or tree collect around the 
porous jar and absorb the fertilizers. Patent has been 
applied for. Mr. Sherman's experiments have been 
mostly confined to rose bushes, which in many cases 
appear to have made enormous growth, shoots extend- 
ing several inches per day in some cases. The inventor 
expects the principle to prove of great value in cultiva- 
tion of all kinds of fruit and shrubs and will attempt 
to have the theory thoroughly tested at the state 
experiment station. 

A Born Horticulturist is Una E. Knight, Niagara 
county, New York. Her story is told in great detail, 
and evidently with keen delight in working amid the 
beauties of nature and among the plants and flowers 
of her garden. A great deal of work was put into 
this garden with no direct return ; much attention 
having been given to various experiments which 
proved more or less indecisive because of the drouth, 
and from neglect caused by illness of several members 
of the family. Expenses for the one-tenth acre were 
nineteen dollars and three cents, of which two-thirds 
was for labor charged at low rates. Receipts were 
twenty-two dollars and eighty-six cents. A novel 
celery bed is described : 

"Near the lower wall was built up a heap of 
manure a foot or more deep on which was placed 
four or five inches of fine earth, and all was enclosed 
in a box-like structure five feet high on three sides, 
and less on the north side, so I could get in. Here I 
transplanted my celery plants four inches apart. I 
watered them copiously from the well every day, or 
as often as I thought was needful. My plants grew 
into stocky clumps, some of them eighteen inches 
high ; a red variety, and they blanched well without 
trouble. All I had to do was to weed and water." 



EXPERIMENTAL GARDENING 193 

This garden account received a regular award of 
ten dollars. 

A Plucky Bay State Woman, Abbie E. C. 
Lathrop, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, not being 
strong and well enough to swing a hoe, did much of 
the weeding in her garden of one thousand seven hun- 
dred square feet with an old butcher knife, and the 
weeds were well conquered, greatly to the benefit of the 
gardener's health. She says : "The work of planting, 
tending and gathering was done entirely by myself, 
demonstrating that a woman, though not strong, may 
tend a garden, if she will but take the work leisurely. 
It is more healthful than bicycling. The keeping of 
accounts proved very interesting." The account was 
one of the best of those not winning a prize. 

A Successful Garden was cultivated on the site 
of an abandoned brickyard by Jere Bradley of Berk- 
shire county, Massachusetts, twenty-second regular 
prize winner. Soil was sandy loam with heavy clay 
subsoil ; area about one-twelfth acre. The work was 
all done mornings, evenings and holidays, the owner 
being employed in a grain store. The system was to 
cultivate with wheel hoe in the spring, then mulch 
heavily, the result being a garden free from weeds. 
Hand wheel garden tools were used. Chicken netting 
was used instead of pea brush. Cabbage and lettuce 
were grown in a hotbed, melons were planted between 
rows of peas. Cultivation ceased July 4 and the 
ground was mulched. 

The.management shows skill in keeping a constant 
succession of market crops, giving something to sell 
almost every day to November 1. Drouth was fought 
successfully by frequently stirring the soil with garden 
implements. 

Frost Every Month proved a serious drawback in 
the case of A. C. Butcher, Whitman countv, Washing- 



194 PRIZE GARDENING 

ton, winner of a regular prize of five dollars. However, 
the patch of a fraction over two acres netted him thirty 
dollars and six cents. The season proved too short 
for potatoes, cucumbers and other tender vegetables, 
but he thinks he might succeed next time by planting 
everything of the very earliest varieties. Corn filled 
poorly and only the early kinds would mature. Cab- 
bages thrive, but early and medium varieties were best. 



CHAPTER XIV 

METHODS UNDER GLASS 

For starting all early vegetables, a hotbed or 
greenhouse is absolutely necessary. The hotbed may 
be simply a frame of boards set over a pile of manure 
and covered with a glass or muslin sash, or it may be 
an expensive structure made by excavating a pit and 
building a masonry wall of bricks and mortar. This is 
the best sort of hotbed, and when once built will last 
for many years, and give better satisfaction than any 
other style. But the expense is something which the 
majority of farmers and gardeners cannot afford, so 
that a pit lined with two-inch plank is the next best 
substitute. But where gardening is carried on on a 
large scale a small forcing house or hotbed heated by a 
small stove will be found much more economical and 
satisfactory.- The forcing house contains a larger 
amount of air and can be run at a more uniform tem- 
perature. 

A CHEAP FORCING HOUSE 

The ordinary style of forcing house, heated with 
steam or hot water pipes under the benches, is, of 
course, the best, but one in which bottom heat is given 
by a flue made by extending the pipe from the stove 
under the benches is quite satisfactory. Very good 
results have been obtained by John Frazer of Wash- 
ington county, New York, one of the garden contest 
prize winners, by using a house which was heated with 
three stoves, one at each end and one in the middle. 




* 



METHODS UNDER GLASS I97 

The house was seventy by twenty feet, divided 
into a center bed nine and one-half by sixty-two feet, 
and two outside beds next to the wall, each three and 
one-half feet wide. All seed was sown in rows four 
inches apart. One outside bed was planted early in 
March to radish and celery plants in alternate rows, 
the radishes being harvested before the celery plants 
needed the room. The other beds were planted to 
lettuce, cauliflower, pepper, tomato, Prizetaker onion, 
beet and cabbage seeds. About one hundred thousand 
celery plants were grown on the one bed. Toward the 
last of April, sods were inverted on the benches, on 
which were planted cucumber and melon seeds. These 
were set in the open ground about June 1. 

The hotbed should be placed on land always free 
from flooding, and with good subsoil drainage, pro- 
tected from the north and west winds and facing south 
or southeast. The manure must be well handled, so 
that the fermentation may be prolonged. Rich, fresh 
horse manure gives a quick, fierce heat and soon sub- 
sides. Mix it with leaves or half-rotten straw, put in 
a pile and turn over two or three times at intervals of 
two or three days to get it well heated throughout. 
Put in the pit, tramp down firmly and evenly and put 
on the sash. After the heat has subsided to ninety 
degrees, put on four to six inches of soil, and when this 
is well warmed up sow the seed in rows four to six 
inches apart. Water with a fine hose and tepid water 
as needed. Give air on pleasant days, and protect 
during cold nights with a covering of salt hay, straw 
mats or old carpets. 

A Farmer's Hotbed. — A hotbed such as is used 
by a large number of gardeners and farmers is thus 
described by J. E. Morse of Michigan, who won the 
grand garden prize of seven hundred and fifty dollars. 
The bed was six by twelve feet, sunk two feet 



I98 PRIZE GARDENING 

below the surface of the ground. In making the 
framework, hemlock lumber one inch thick was used 
and posts two by four inches at each corner and mid- 
way between. At the north side, the framework 
extended one foot above ground ; at the south, it 
extended six inches above, giving a six-inch slope to the 
sash. The glass used in fitting sashes was eight by ten. 
Horse manure, which had been cured under shelter, 
freed from coarse litter and forked over a number of 
times, was solidly tramped down in the bed to a depth 
of eighteen inches. The sashes were then put on, and 
left for four days before adding the soil. After cover- 
ing with soil, the bed was let stand for four days. This 
allowed the soil to warm up and weed seed to ger- 
minate. It was then raked over fine and even, and the 
soil firmed lightly with a wide board before sowing 
the seed. 

A quick way of making up hotbeds is followed by 
W. H. McMillen, a large Wisconsin market gardener. 
He says : " I haul three good loads of coarse manure 
for each frame, pile it up and let stand for five or six 
days, then fork it over into another pile, when it will 
begin to heat, and then pile it over again, and when it 
is steaming well I pace off the size of the frames, 
spreading the manure evenly, fifteen inches larger each 
way than the frames, and tramp it down firm. I then 
place the frames, bank them up well and put on the 
sash, and leave it for seven or eight days. Then if the 
manure is heated evenly, put on about four inches of 
good earth and let down a sash at each end about six 
inches to allow the rank heat to escape. After the third 
day I sow the seeds. Great care must be taken that the 
earth is warm all through. When the plants are about 
four inches high, transplant to a cold frame, which is 
made on the same plan as the hotbed, except with a 
covering of cloth instead of glass." 



METHODS UNDER GLASS 1 99 

Mr. Kinney's Plan. — The ground in the bed 
should be forked up as fine as possible and left soft 
and loose, according to the advice of F. L. Kinney, a 
prominent gardener of Worcester county, Massachu- 
setts. Forest leaves are perhaps the best thing to put 
in to keep the frost out, and if there is danger of mice, 
it might be well to let the ground freeze a little before 
putting the leaves in, and it would be a good thing to 
put in a little corn and smaller seeds that have been 
sprinkled with poison while wet, so that the mice, 
should they find their way in, would not flourish. The 
bed is now ready to close up with the sash and shutters, 
and when the sash are all on, put in the last end piece. 
This work should be done before winter and the bed 
can be filled with the horse manure at any time. 

Put in plenty of manure and cover with eight 
inches or so of loam. Lettuce is the one great crop 
that is grown under glass in winter and early spring, 
and to grow this to perfection it is very desirable, and 
it is often almost necessary, to have a loose, sandy soil. 
My soil is heavy and I have tried a great many things 
to put it in good condition for this crop, but have never 
been able to get perfectly satisfactory results. Fleavy 
manuring and stirring the soil help considerably. Tur- 
nip radishes will grow on most any soil, but long ones 
need a loose, mellow soil and do not need so much 
bottom heat as lettuce or turnip radishes. 

During March and April many of the sash in Mr. 
Kinney's place are used for starting plants. Cabbage, 
cauliflower, lettuce and early celery should be sown 
about the first of March for the first early crop. It is 
possible to raise fairly good plants by sowing thinly. 
We prefer sowing in drills and giving the young plants 
plenty of air, and when they have three or four true 
leaves, set them in a bed, about two hundred to the sash. 



200 PRIZE GARDENING 

Items of Care. — In writing of the management of 
hotbeds, W. I. Anderson advises not to sow seed in 
them before the first week in March. Then sow cab- 
bage, lettuce, radishes, beets and tomatoes. Use Early 
Jersey Wakefield cabbage, Grand Rapid lettuce, Egyp- 
tian beets, Dwarf Champion tomatoes, Early Scarlet 
Turnip radish, and it would be well to use Wood's 
Long Early Frame radish, too, so as to prolong 
the crop. 

Be sure the heat is not too strong when you plant, 
as much seed is ruined because of this. Remember it 
gets hot quickly under glass when the sun shines on it, 
and small, tender plants will soon perish unless they 
get fresh air. But a ulast of cold wind will kill them 
almost as quickly as the san. Open the sash in such a 
way that the wind cannot hit them. In plants raised 
for transplanting, let your object be to get them stocky 
instead of spindling, hardy instead of tender, and 
healthy with a deep, rich green, instead of pale and 
sickly. Abundance of fresh air and sufficient moisture 
will do it. Keep as even temperature as you can. Do 
not hurry the plants. Good ones are better than quick 
ones. Water heavily rather than often. Stir the soil 
and keep it loose at all times. Give air as soon as the 
sun strikes the glass in the morning, but close up early 
in the evening. Let the plants have all the sunlight 
possible. 

Some plants, asserts Mr. Anderson, such as onions, 
cabbage, lettuce, etc., will stand more cold than toma- 
toes, peppers, egg plant and the like. The proper tem- 
perature for these two classes differs almost twenty 
degrees. When possible, grow them under different 
sashes, where you can regulate the heat if you will 
remember what I said about constructing the hotbed. 
About April I the radishes ought to be ready to use. 



METHODS UNDER GDASS 201 

As soon as removed sow in their place celery, peppers, 
egg plants and a second seeding of tomatoes. 

' Take the cabbage, lettuce and beets out of the hot- 
bed some days before you plant and give them all the 
air and cold that they will stand so as to harden them. 
Then transplant cabbage four inches apart, lettuce five, 
beets in rows ten inches apart. This can be done in the 
open ground, as these things will stand freezing. Mr. 
Anderson has had cabbage plants in open ground when 
it was twenty-two degrees below freezing and they 
made good heads. But it will be much better, he thinks, 
if a frame can be around them over which coverings 
can be placed in freezing weather. As soon as the 
tomatoes are large enough, transplant them in the 
hotbed in the space before occupied by the boxes. They 
should be four to six inches apart and should remain 
there until they bloom. 

Useful Details.— W. H. Pillon, Ontario county, 
New York, a leading special prize winner, gives details 
for forcing several kinds of tender plants, as follows : 
I sowed tgg plant, tomato and pepper seed, March 30, 
in a small box in the house. Good garden soil was put 
in the bottom of the box with one-fourth fine rotted 
manure, filling within an inch of the top, then one- 
half inch of woods mold. I made little drills three 
inches apart and one-half inch deep, with a pointed 
stick. I sowed the seed in these drills and covered 
lightly, using a case knife and pressing the soil upon 
the seed with the knife. I used small plant labels, 
numbered, between each variety of seed. I also kept 
a record in my diary so that I could tell where each 
variety was when I wanted to place them in the hotbed. 
After sowing, I watered the soil and covered it 
with a cloth. In three days I watered it again, drop- 
ping the water upon the cloth, and after that whenever 
the soil seemed too dry. The box was kept on a small 



202 PRIZE GARDENING 

table close to a south window, in a room where a coal 
fire was kept night and day. At night the box was 
moved near the stove. Tomato seeds came up finely in 
seven days, egg plant and peppers fairly well in four- 
teen days. As the seeds came up the cloth was 
removed and the box turned each day so as to have the 
opposite side placed next to the window, as the plants 
will lean toward the light. 

I made a hotbed, April 10, using three sash frames 
I have had five years. I took out last year's dirt and 
manure, and in the bottom put two loads of horse 
manure. One man threw in the manure while another 
kept it evenly spread and trodden down ; not very hard, 
but so as to keep it from settling. Then four inches of 
last year's dirt was thrown in, and about an inch of 
fresh black garden mold spread over it. With a gar- 
den rake I drew out all the coarse lumps, leaving the 
soil fine. The sash was then put on and kept closed 
night and day, until I sowed some seed. I banked up 
with dirt outside the frame to within one or two inches 
of the top of the frame, the bank of last year having 
been allowed to remain in place the whole year. 

Sowed in the hotbed, April 13, cabbage twelve 
varieties, broccoli one, cauliflower two, lettuce one, 
asters six, mignonette one, pansies one, verbena two. 
I made drills four inches apart, one-half inch in depth, 
with a pointed stick. I sowed the seed in the drills and 
covered them by brushing a garden hoe lightly over 
them lengthwise, which also pressed the soil sufficiently 
close to the seed. I kept a record of the sowing and 
marked the different varieties with a numbered plant 
label between each two kinds. The soil was watered 
with a fine-nosed watering pot and covered with a 
cloth. After this the bed was watered every two or 
three days as seemed necessary. When plants came up 
the cloth was removed. The sashes were kept closed 



METHODS UNDER GLASS 



203 



most of the time after sowing the seed, occasionally 
some air was given by raising the sashes an inch. 
After the plants were up, some air was given every day 
and a good deal of it when the sun shone brightly, to 
prevent the stems rotting off close to the ground, 
thereby losing the plants. 1 find cabbage more sus- 
ceptible to this disease than tomatoes, although any 
plant will suffer if not properly aired. 

I pricked out tomato plants, April 20, from the 
box, and placed them in the hotbed four inches apart 




HOTBEDS AND COLD FRAMES 



each way. The plants were taken from the box by 
thrusting a case knife below them, holding the plants 
by the top with one hand while raising the knife with 
the other, thus avoiding breaking the roots. A hole 
was made for the plants with a wooden drill. The 
plants were placed in the hole and the dirt pressed 
firmly up to them, then some loose soil was drawn up 
to them on the top of the ground. After being set they 



204 PRIZE GARDENING 

were watered, and while the sun shone, from 9 a. m. to 
4 p. m., the sash over the plants was covered with a 
cloth for two days. They were watered and aired as 
required, and the ground stirred about them with a 
dung fork about once a week until they were ready to 
set out of doors. 

A Very Practical Gardener and contestant, G. J. 
Townsend of Wayne county, New York, describes 
his successful hotbeds and cold frames as follows : My 
hotbeds are eighteen feet long and five feet wide. 
Used two-inch plank twelve inches wide. The most of 
the sashes are three by five feet. Some are three by six 
feet, but the three by five feet are the most convenient 
size. I dug out about two feet deep, filled with good 
fresh horse manure that had commenced to heat. 
Tramped well, then put on about four or five inches of 
dirt that had been worked well the year before, and 
middling dry. I put on the sashes about three or four 
weeks before making. Work over the dirt some and 
the sun will dry it out ; then shovel it out one side, and 
take out old manure and put in fresh. The best dirt 
is a good sandy loam. Put on dirt and sashes, let 
stand for a week or so until rank heat passes off. Give 
air in the daytime. Put a thermometer in. 

I worked the dirt fine on a sunny March day in the 
hotbeds and sowed the seed one-half or three-fourths 
inch deep in drills three inches apart. I sowed and 
covered by hand, then watered them. Gave some air on 
sunny days. When tomatoes are up keep watch of the 
thermometer that it does not get below forty-two or 
above eighty long. Let air in on sunny days from nine 
or ten o'clock to about three or four, and a little on 
cloudy days if not too cold. To let off dampness 
when tomatoes come up until second leaves appear, 
water very little, but keep the ground just moist. If 
they commence to damp off I loosen the ground 



METHODS UNDER GLASS 



205 



between the rows with Hazeltine hand weeder. Water 
toward evening - , taking - the chill off in cold weather. On 
cold nights I cover the sashes with canvas or blankets ; 
if very cold with fine hay or horse manure. When 
tomatoes are about three inches high I transplant them 
to cold frame. 

In April I make cold frames same as hotbeds, 
except use no manure. Set tomatoes in cold frame 



' - vm 


.1 






Ul 






* 3 ...• 



MR. G. J. TOWNSEND, HIS WORKSHOP AND COLD FRAMES 



about three inches apart. Take a strip about three 
inches wide and four or five feet long to mark out with. 
Have the ground mellow. Make hole with right fore- 
finger. In this way I can set three or four thousand a 
day. If boxes are used they should be made in the 
winter time. I buy boxes for about five cents apiece at 
the grocery store that will make from two to twelve 
dozen plant boxes. I use glass for the cold frames the 



206 PRIZE GARDENING 

first half of April, and five or six-cent cotton cloth the 
last half. Cold frames need covering every night the 
first half of April with canvas or blankets. I lost three 
hundred tomato plants in cold frame by frost by not 
doing it. Water just enough to keep them growing. 
About a week after they are set out stir the dirt with a 
hand weeder. 

Massachusetts Methods. — Writing along similar 
lines, a prominent and successful contestant, E. R. 
Flagg, Worcester county, Massachusetts, thus de- 
scribes his methods : April 29 a cold frame was pre- 
pared by placing four boards, each about a foot wide, 
together like a box without top or bottom, so as to 
enclose a space six feet square. On top of this frame 
were placed two hotbed sash, each three feet wide and 
six feet long. The north side of the frame was raised 
enough to give the sash a pitch of about four inches 
toward the south. Eighteen inches in thickness of 
stable manure was banked about the outside and up to 
the top of the frame. 

May 1, the glass was removed and the rich soil 
enclosed by the frame was spaded up, thoroughly fined, 
and sufficient soil added to bring the surface, when 
leveled, about six inches from the glass. A wheelbar- 
row load of well-rotted stable manure, two quarts of 
unleached wood ashes and eight quarts of sifted hen 
manure were evenly spread over the surface within the 
frame and thoroughly mixed with the soil. The sur- 
face was then well raked, all lumps removed, the earth 
well pressed against the sides of the frame with the 
head of the rake, and a final raking left the surface of 
the soil everywhere equally distant from the top of the 
frame and the glass. 

The pressing of the soil against the inner side of the 
frame is important in order to prevent uneven settling 
of the earth after the seed is sown. An uneven surface 



METHODS UNDER GLASS 207 

makes the even and proper watering of tiny plants 
impossible. After the soil was prepared the seed was 
sown. 

The radish seeds were sown in rows where they 
could mature, and the other seeds in squares of one 
foot or less. All seeds were covered by sifting on a 
thin layer of rich earth and fine sand, equal parts, well 
mixed. The depth of covering, as a general rule, 
should not exceed twice the diameter of the seed 
covered. 

The different varieties were marked by small 
strips of shingle on which the name of the variety was 
written in pencil. Care was taken in sowing, to sepa- 
rate varieties of the same kind of seed, as All-head and 
Sun-head cabbage, by some other seed, as tomato or 
onion. In this way there was no difficulty in identify- 
ing all the varieties. 

The seeds above named occupied about two-thirds 
of the area of the frame, and a few flower and other 
seeds were sown in the spare corner. The earth was 
gently firmed over the seed by moderate pressure on a 
bit of board, and a pail of water, moderately warm, 
was applied with a watering pot having a fine nose. 
The sash was then placed on the frame and closed 
down. During sunny days the upper end of the sash 
was raised an inch or more for ventilation, and luke- 
warm water was applied when the soil appeared to 
require moisture. 

The seeds were sown May I, and on May 4, 
radish, lettuce and cabbage plants were breaking the 
ground, followed two or three days by the other varie- 
ties, excepting parsley, which requires more time for 
germination. The frame was covered nights with two 
old blankets, as the nights were cool and frost occurred 
on May 4, 13, 15 and 22. 



208 PRIZE GARDENING 

As the plants grew larger and the weather became 
warmer, more ventilation was given by raising the sash 
at the top and bottom. Warm water was still used, but 
care was taken to apply only so much as the plants re- 
quired for thrifty growth. Too liberal watering and 
too little ventilation induce the rotting of the stems 
of the plants, known among greenhouse men as 
damping-ofr. May 18, the radishes were forming 
bulbous roots, and lettuce, cauliflower and cabbage 
plants were of sufficient size to transplant into the 
unoccupied space in the frame. May 20, the radishes 
were large enough for use and some were pulled for 
the table. As the weather grew warmer the ventilation 
was increased until the sashes were removed altogether 
and the frame was covered with netting ; two-inch mesh 
was placed over the cold frame to exclude chickens. 
No future care, except occasional watering, was 
required while the plants remained in the cold frame. 

Forcing Cucumbers and Tomatoes. — Some of the 
essentials are described by G. C. Stone, a Massachusetts 
expert : Cucumbers, he asserts, require a temperature 
from sixty-five to eighty-five degrees. They are not 
especially sensitive to mechanical conditions of the soil, 
neither do they respond very quickly to fertilizer. A 
good soil for cucumbers is one made of rotten sod and 
horse manure. This makes a light, pliable soil. 

They require all the light possible under glass, 
especially November and March, a matter which is too 
little understood by those growing cucumbers. Some 
of the so-called diseases can be traced directly to the 
lack of light in the house. This is especially true where 
growers have resorted to the practice of using two 
layers of glass in their houses. The plants under such 
conditions become yellow ; they cannot assimilate the 
carbon dioxide from the air properly, as the light is 



METHODS UNDER GLASS 209 

largely excluded by the two layers of glass and the 
usmal two accompanying layers of dirt. 

There are ten fungous diseases peculiar to the 
cucumber. The wilt is peculiar to outdoor cucumbers. 
This is caused by bacteria which plug up the vessels, 
thus interfering with the water supply. This has not 
been seen on outdoor cucumbers in Massachusetts. 

The powdery mildew is more or less common and 
can be controlled by attention to moisture conditions 
and light. It is seldom found on vigorous plants of 
good texture. 

The damping fungus is troublesome to young 
cucumbers and can be prevented by sterilizing the soil. 

The anthracnose would seem to be caused by too 
great a difference between the day and night tempera- 
ture. On this account it is far more common in the 
spring in greenhouses when the fires go out. 

Besides fungous diseases there are two or three 
troublesome pests which belong to the animal kingdom, 
known as aphis and thrip, both of which are controlled 
by tobacco, and nematodes, which give rise to galls on 
the roots and can be controlled by the application of 
heat or by thorough drying of the soil. 

Tomatoes require similar temperature and mois- 
ture conditions to those of the cucumber. There are 
some twelve fungous diseases recorded for tomatoes, 
but the fruit rot and mildew are the most troublesome 
diseases of these parts. These can be controlled by 
spraying. They also, like the cucumbers, are subject 
to nematodes and the same method of treatment applies 
t , both. 

Forcing Lettuce. — The ideal soil for lettuce, 
according to C. E. Hunn of New York, would be 
a well-drained gravelly or sandy loam, but with care 
in watering, a soil of heavy texture may be made to 
produce excellent crops of the loose, open varieties. 



2IO PRIZE GARDENING 

The heading or cabbage lettuce is more exacting if a 
fine quality is desired. The first crop of lettuce from 
the houses should be ready to use by the middle of 
November. 

For this crop, seed should be sown in September, 
allowing on an average from six to eight weeks for the 
crop to mature. A temperature of fifty-five to sixty 
degrees through the day, with a drop to forty-five at 
night, will suit all varieties, but in the case of the 
heading varieties a rise of five to ten degrees at the time 
of heading will finish off the crop more uniformly. 

According to Hunn, the construction of a house 
for forcing winter vegetables is not a matter of first 
importance. The three-quarter span house perhaps 
furnishes as nearly as possible the best condition for 
forced crops. However, an even-span or shed-roof 
house grows many crops to a high degree o^ perfection. 
As for the inside arrangement of the house, the crops 
to be grown will have much to do in the matter. 

Cool-house crops, as lettuce, radish and the like, 
are well grown in solid beds, while heat-loving plants, 
as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc., should be planted 
on benches built over the pipes. This means that the 
cost of building a greenhouse depends very much on 
what crop one expects to grow. The saving in benches 
and heat in houses devoted to cold crops is considerable, 
while the ease with which such crops may be grown 
recommends them to the beginner. 

A Minnesota Competitor made a cold frame, April 
14, for tomatoes and early cabbage, taking two boards 
five fcet k -ig and one foot wide for the sides, and two 
boards three feet long and one foot wide for the ends, 
and made a box with no bottom to it. He set the box 
in the ground about two inches ; dug up the ground on 
the inside and sowed the seeds. Then he took one of 



METHODS UNDER GLASS 211 

the storm windows from the house and placed it on top 
of the box, and the cold frame was complete. 

Coal the Best Heat.— Every farmer should have a 
house garden for winter vegetables, either under a 
glass roof on the dwelling on the south side, or near. 
Instead of burning manure to start plants for the farm, 
they should be started with wood or coal heat. The 
coal heat is easier to regulate and those who have used 
both think it the cheaper. We have grown two hun- 
dred dollars worth of lettuce in a winter when we had 
five to seven cents for ten radishes, and six dollars to 
seven dollars and fifty cents a barrel for lettuce.— [R. 
Bingam, New Jersey. 

Small Frames were made by a New York gar- 
dener, the sides being of two pieces of seven-inch board, 
each eleven inches long, and two pieces of six-inch 
board, eight inches long, for ends. No top or bottom, 
Nail them flush at the bottom, so as to make a frame 
eleven inches long by ten inches wide outside, and nine 
inches long by eight inches wide inside, with the top 
edges of the side boards rising an inch above the end 
boards. Now lay an eight by ten-inch glass between 
the projecting sides, one-half inch resting on each 
board. Secure it from slipping by a big-headed tack 
at each end. Then set it over the freshly planted 
cucumber or melon hill. It protects from frost, serves 
as a forcing frame, and keeps off insects while the vines 
are small. Made on rainy days, of waste boards, they 
cost nothing but the glass. 



CHAPTER XV 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 



While the prize gardens usually contained a full 
assortment of vegetables, and often of fruit and flowers 
also, the description in many cases showed that the 
gardener was more or less of a specialist with some 
one or two crops. He had grown these leading crops 
with distinct success and was thoroughly at home 
in relating the details of their management. Many 
of these special descriptions are included in the general 
garden accounts in other chapters, the others are 
grouped together here under the various crop headings. 

Potatoes in Nezv Jersey. — In northern and central 
New Jersey white potatoes are a staple crop, and the 
methods are labor-saving and businesslike. They are 
well described by A. Engle Haines, a Burlington 
county grower. A rotation followed brings potatoes on 
same ground once in five years, corn being the preced- 
ing crop. After husking in November, New York 
horse manure of best quality is spread on rye, which 
is sown to plow down, at the rate of twelve tons per 
acre. Plowing is commenced about April I. 

The seed is purchased in Aroostook county, 
Maine. Fertilizer is applied at the rate of one thousand 
pounds per acre, in rows two feet nine inches apart. 
Rows of this width are desirable on account of vines 
covering ground entirely before hot weather. Ferti- 
lizer should not have less than ten per cent potash. 

The seed is cut, as far as possible, to one eye, and 
plaster put on immediately. Cutting should be done 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 213 

four days before planting, so as to heal. Planting is 
deep enough so ground may be harrowed across the 
rows, thus disposing of first crop of weeds. 

The weeder is used every three days in the after- 
noon, and never in the morning, until after sprouts are 
large enough to be cultivated, which is done alternately 
with a one-horse peg-tooth and a two-horse riding 
cultivator. 

The one-horse arrangement pulls the dirt away, 
while the two-horse tends to ridge, and by using both 
the soil is kept perfectly level, which is very important, 
especially in time of drouth. The weeder follows every 
cultivation until plants are twelve inches high, making 
the ground fine and breaking crust around the stems. 
The ground should be stirred at least every week and 
oftener if it rains oftener. 

During the season of 1900 there was a very severe 
local drouth, no soaking rain falling during growing 
season. We succeeded in harvesting a crop of potatoes 
that year with only six per cent culls. The variety 
depends on kind of ground, location, etc. 

Late Planted Crop was produced with success by 
R. Bingam of New Jersey, who writes : We are try- 
ing to improve farm practice by earlier planting in the 
south side of ridges thrown up in furrowing to get 
more sun heat and protection from north winds, and by 
covering with dry weeds, leaves or hay to protect from 
frost in early spring or late fall. I have potatoes still 
green November 21, by covering three times, and on 
an adjoining farm those planted August 9 were killed 
October 2. Ours were planted September 7, and are 
fair size for planting. We make our rows closer and 
have put one plant in a place, getting more plants per 
acre and giving each more room to feed in. Instead 
of placing the food below the roots, where it obstructs 
the rise of moisture in time of drouth,' we place it on the 



214 PRIZE GARDENING 

surface, where it conserves moisture, and rains carry it 
to the roots instead of to the rivers, as is the case when 
placed below in our leachy sand. We use rakes for 
close work among plant roots instead of hoes. 

The Potato Field. — Potatoes are first plowed out, 
then picked up and carried to the cellar. The ground 
is then harrowed and gleanings picked up. The field 
is then plowed deeper and harrowed again. By plow- 
ing deeper the deep-growing potatoes are thrown out. 

— [Enos Elton, Douglas county, Nebraska. 

I do not believe in planting potatoes early. By 
watching other people's patches, I have decided that 
it does not increase the yield to freeze off the tops. 

— [J. L., Tompkins county, New York. 

People that use small potatoes for planting with 
the idea of saving, lose bushels to save pecks. Large 
seed potatoes at three dollars per bushel are preferable 
to small ones as a gift. The potato bug must have 
attention. Paris green is generally used ; a prepara- 
tion called Bug Death is far superior. One application 
when the dew is on is sufficient for the season. It 
adheres tenaciously to the vines. — [L. E. Dimock, Tol- 
land county, Connecticut. 

The New Onion Culture is described by E. W. 
Godfrey, Illinois, as follows : I planted two plots, one 
of Yellow Danvers, sowing the seed, and the other of 
Prizetaker, the seed being sown in hotbeds and trans- 
planted. To begin with, I bought Greiner's book, The 
New Onion Culture, and followed his instructions as 
carefully as possible. In everything except labor, I 
found his statements very conservative. He puts the 
labor cost of weeding and hoeing at thirty dollars for 
seed onions and twenty dollars for transplanted. I put 
it at one hundred dollars per acre in any good growing 
season. 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 



215 



One cannot insist too strongly on the necessity of 
fertilizing. When the labor investment is so heavy, 
it is the worst of folly to economize on manures. Poor 
land will hardly pay for seed. Average good land will 
not more than repay labor and expenses, while rich 
land, with good cultivation, will return a satisfactory 
profit. I believe in the transplanting method, provided 



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HARVESTING ONIONS 



the seed can be sown in hotbeds early enough, say from 
February 15 to March i, in this latitude of forty 
degrees, so the plants can be set out in the ground 
about the middle of April. 

In this way, six weeks of good growing weather 
is gained. By using large varieties, the returns will 



2l6 



PRIZE GARDENING 



amply repay the extra expense of transplanting. But, 
if for any reason, there is much delay in getting the 
hotbed started, I would give it up and put the seed into 
the open ground as early as possible, using plenty of 
good seed to get a full stand. 

The cost of transplanting I have found to be 
about fifty dollars per acre, that is one man and five 
boys at three dollars and fifty cents per day ought to 




A NEW ENGLAND ONION CROP 



pull and transplant twelve thousand sets a day. Labor 
is of course variable and experts might do more, but 
with common labor one picking up two thousand sets 
is a fair day's work. Hence, to repay for transplanting 
one must get one hundred bushels extra per acre, and 
this can only be done by using the big varieties and 
with the six weeks of extra growth. With both these 
points I think the crop ought to be doubled and yield 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 2lJ 

four hundred to six hundred bushels extra per acre 
on rich ground. 

The arguments advanced that transplanting saves 
seed and weeding I regard as of no value. It is penny- 
wise and pound-foolish to try and save seed. If it 
saved weeding, it would be a strong argument, but I 
fail to see that it helps. There are just so many weeds 
to be pulled. It is of course easier to the worker to 
have the onions a uniform distance in the row, but 
my experience shows that the average workman will 



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PRIZE ONIONS 

cover no more ground per day. As to long-handled 
hoeing to save stooping, I do not think it can be done 
between the onions. The onion worker must make up 
his mind to put in the season on his knees. By using 
padded knee cushions, it is easier. 

In Weeding Onions, observes a New York woman 
gardener, I always find it the best way to use my 
fingers. To be successful with them you must not allow 
the dirt to come up over them. When I speak of using 



2l8 TRIZE GARDENING 

my fingers, I mean where the ground is soft. Run the 
ringer down into the dirt close to the onion and work up 
carefully and loosen and take away some of the earth, 
and as they get larger thin them well and take away 
more earth. They should be, when full grown, stand- 
ing entirely out of the ground, just the roots only in 
the earth. I had a little plot in my garden, seventeen by 
thirty feet, and gathered eight and three-fourths 
bushels of marketable onions from it. 

The Onion Harvest, — The onions, according to 
the methods of E. Elton, Douglas county, Nebraska, 
are pulled, throwing five rows into one, and let dry for 
a couple of days. They are then picked up and sold or 
put into a building until it freezes through the build- 
ing. They are then taken out and sold, or kept near 
freezing point till selling price is better. 

Tomatoes were very popular as a prize garden 
crop. They were quite generally successful, and their 
profuse yield sometimes saved the day, so far as con- 
cerned profit from the season's operations. One of 
the most complete of the numerous tomato reports 
comes from A. A. Atwood of Iowa. 

His tomato seed was planted in a bed made by 
driving down stakes and nailing up wide boards and 
covering it nights and cold days. It was planted April 
15, in rows five to six inches apart, and covered one- 
half inch deep. The plants came up slowly, but grew 
well, and Air. Atwood raised about eight thousand 
from one-fourth pound of seed. The variety was 
Stone. The ground was plowed seven or eight inches 
deep, harrowed, cross-harrowed and marked in rows 
three and one-half feet apart. He set just an acre, 
beginning to transplant May 24 and finishing June 7, 
setting the plants three feet apart and using four 
thousand one hundred and thirty-six. A few plants 
had to be reset, principally on account of cutworms. 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 



219 



The young- plants were hoed June 12, and the weeds 
were cut out with a hoe on June 19, 24 and July 1 1. 
They were cultivated June 14 and 22. The tomato 
worms were not bad, but he went over the patch and 
killed one hundred. 

Some of the tomatoes were in bloom July 6, and 
the first were ripe August 12. Picking began for the 
canning factory September 1, and until September 28, 




PICKING TOMATOES 

when there was a severe freeze, were sold fourteen 
thousand five hundred and thirty pounds at five 
dollars per ton, eighteen bushels to the neighbors at 
twenty-five cents per bushel, and eight bushels were 
used at home. At the time of the freeze there were 
three thousand pounds of tomatoes on the vines. 
Besides the above there were sold one thousand six 
hundred plants at ten cents per hundred, making a 
total of forty-four dollars and forty-three cents 



220 PRIZE GARDENING 

received. The picking cost two cents per crate or 
seven cents per ton. The cost was as follows: Pre- 
paring ground and planting seed two dollars and 
twenty-five cents, seed thirty cents, transplanting and 
resetting three dollars and five cents, cultivating 
five dollars and fifty cents, harvesting and market- 
ing twelve dollars and ninety-five cents ; total 
twenty-four dollars and five cents, and profits twenty 
dollars and thirty-eight cents. 

Southern Tomato Culture, as described by A. 
Klenke, Palo Pinto county, Texas, presents several 
points of difference : My way is to plow the ground a 
foot deep in the fall of the year, manure richly with 
barnyard manure and some wood ashes, then plow the 
ground several times during the winter to prevent it 
from becoming compact. 

I set the plants three feet each way. I find frames 
not profitable, but plant close enough so that one plant 
will in a measure support another. I put small brush 
under the plants to prevent fruit from touching the 
ground. A few times gathering will make regular 
places for the feet to stand, and the same places should 
be used every time when gathering tomatoes. I give 
deep culture as often as possible until crowding plants 
prevent plowing. 

In transplanting during a dry time, I have had 
good success in the following way : First of all, I have 
holes ready to receive the plants before taking them 
out of the seed bed. I then pinch off all shoots except 
the very top leaves, and set them so as only to expose 
the top of the plants. I give plenty of water, rake 
some drv dirt over the wet, and when carefullv done 
no shading is required, and in a few days the plants 
will be several inches above the ground. When trans- 
planting in the usual way I shade plants for two days 
by placing old boards or shingles around them to keep 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 221 

off the sun. By using the above method I need not 
wait for a rainy spell to transplant tomato plants. 

Plants in Boxes. — I started my tomatoes in the 
kitchen window and let them grow there until May 2, 
when I planted them out, each plant in a strawberry 
box, and placed them in the cold frame with my cucum- 
bers. My one hundred tomatoes and twenty-five pep- 
pers I set out after I got the water on the hill, June 19. 
They were good strong plants, all in bloom, and the 
boxes were full of good roots. I like this way of rais- 
ing, for it gives plenty of room and makes stocky 
plants. It does not disturb the roots as when all are set 
in one box. In setting I cut the corners, placed the 
box in the hill, then slipped out the box, put the soil 
around, pressed well, using water the same as for 
cucumbers. Not a plant wilted, although the sun was 
very hot. I do not trellis, although I think it would 
pay. — [A. E. Ross, Strafford county, New Hampshire. 

Good Tomatoes. — The first thing to do is to buy 
a package of Fordhook Fancy tomato seed. Quick 
germination and steady growth are essential to a good 
yield. Sow the seed in rich soil from March 1 to 20 
and keep warm and moist. When plants are two inches 
high, transplant in fresh soil four inches apart, keep 
in good light with less water; transplant the second 
time, and when the weather is warm and fine, plant in 
the open field. The dwarf varieties need richer soil 
than the taller kinds. I raise the Fordhook in this way 
with the very best results. I sell large quantities of 
these plants, put in boxes six by eight, twelve plants 
in each box. This variety gives best satisfaction in 
this section, as the plants look well when young and 
need no support; the fruit is beautiful. — [Alfred 
Fuller, Cattaraugus county, New York. 

Once Transplanted is Enough according to F. R. 
Trask, Worcester county, Massachusetts. May 9, set 



222 



PRIZE GARDENING 



out fifteen small Spot Cash tomato plants in open 
ground direct from seed boxes sown April 10. Other 
plants were transplanted to larger boxes, according to 
usual custom, where they remained until May 30, when 
they were set in open ground. These plants were at 
this time larger and better looking than those set in 
garden May 9, but while they were recovering from 
the shock of the second transplanting the first quite 
caught up with them and in the end were the better 
plants. Would also note experiment with an early 
tomato sowed in open ground May 23, not transplanted 
at all, nor very well cared for, but it bore abundantly 
and ripened fruit in October. I have concluded that 




v -tJIIW 



MR. EDGE'S TOMATO SUPPORT 



except for very earliest use, it is best to transplant toma- 
toes but once, direct from seed box to open ground, 
and for late crop the seed box may be dispensed with, 
sowing in hills in open ground any time in May, and 
thinning to one plant as with cabbages, etc. 

A Cheap Tomato Frame is described by Alfred P. 
Edge, Harford county, Maryland. Each frame con- 
sists of four pieces of three by four scantling fastened 
together at the top with a wooden pin so that they will 
open and close. On each side are nailed three strips of 
shingle lath about fifteen feet long. The frames stand 
about four feet high when open, and by stooping one 
can walk the whole way underneath. The frames are 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 223 

set between two rows so that plants from each side are 
trained up and over them. After the plants are nicely 
started, Mr. Edge ties them to the lower strip, but after 
that they are held by the slant of the frame. In the fall 
he closes the frames and leans them against the fence 
out of the way until wanted another year. 

Good Melons.— A grower of prime melons was 
L. E. Dimock, Connecticut, whose luscious products 
won much glory at county fairs. Six hills were planted, 
May 17, to Iron Clad Melons, and six to Santiago. 
The earth was excavated to the depth of two feet, three 
feet in diameter, and filled with decomposed cow and 
horse manure, with a liberal supply of hen manure, 
the whole being mixed thoroughly with the soil. The 
seeds after being soaked in water for thirty-six hours 
were planted in each hill and covered two inches deep. 
A box two feet square, twelve inches deep, with the 
top and bottom taken off, was placed over each hill 
and there remained, except when hoeing, until the 
plants were ready to send out vines, then it was 
removed. This protects the plants from chilling winds 
and the vines grow much faster than otherwise. Water- 
melons are an uncertain crop to those who have no 
experience in raising them. The soil must be of a 
sandy loam and if the proper surface can be utilized, 
and a southeast slope can be had, it is one great factor 
in melon raising. Two vines only are allowed in each 
hill and all but two melons are picked off each vine. 
The ends of the vines are pinched off after the melons 
have set. On this space forty-eight melons weighed 
from thirty to thirty-five or forty pounds, and were a 
beautiful sight. 

C. P. Byington's Melon Crop was a grand success ; 
early, abundant and of fine quality. Holes were made 
in the soil where each hill was to be, eight inches deep 
and two and one-half feet in diameter. Coarse 



224 PRIZE GARDENING 

barnyard manure was spread evenly over the bottom 
of each hole to a depth of three inches and covered 
with an inch of fine soil, on top of which was placed 
two shovelfuls of compost; and this in turn covered 
with three inches of fine sifted soil, thus raising the 
hill level with the surface. The seeds were then 
planted by hand to a depth of one and one-half to 
two inches, fifteen or twenty seeds to the hill, placed 
germ end down, and covered with the hand. Each 
hill was then sown with a few radish seeds, lightly 
covered, and the soil compacted. The hills were 
made eight feet apart for watermelons, and six feet 
apart for muskmelons. 

Cultivation was begun as soon as the plants were 
up, and continued every other day until August i, 
working as close to the hills as the vines would 
admit, maintaining a fine mulch on the surface to save 
moisture. As soon as the vines reached a length of 
three feet, the ends were pinched off to promote the 
growth of laterals and fruit close to the hills. The 
object of sowing radish seed on each hill was for the 
twofold purpose of furnishing a succession of radishes 
and to protect the young plants from the ravages of 
insects. As soon as the plants were out of the way of 
insects, the radishes which had not already been 
removed for table use were pulled, and the plants 
thinned out, leaving three of the most thrifty plants to 
a hill. These above methods apply equally well to 
squashes and cucumbers. 

" Whether the presence of the radishes in the 
hills had any protective influence, I cannot say ; certain 
it is, however, that none of my melons, squashes or 
cucumbers were troubled in the least with insects, and 
the plan is not without value as it furnishes a succession 
of radishes without utilizing extra ground. The vines 
made a good growth, withstanding the severe drouth 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 225 

remarkably well, and fruiting abundantly, both water- 
melons and muskmelons being available for the table 
and for exhibition at the county fair the latter part of 
August, and they were constantly available thereafter 
until October 2, when an impending frost led me to 
pick the few which remained, and by keeping them in a 
cool cellar, these were available until used up." 

Squashes and Cucumbers. — Methods as described 
for these were much the same as for melons. In regard 
to the summer squash, Dr. W. Y. Fox, Bristol county, 
Massachusetts, writes : Two plantings of Golden 
Summer Crookneck were made, one on May 5, and the 
other July 3. The hills were filled with stable manure 
and irrigated several times. The striped beetle was 
kept down by free use of air-slaked lime. The first 
squashes were cut July 17, and the last October I. In 
all we had two hundred squashes, and we appreciate 
this vegetable as much as any we raise, for it is impos- 
sible to buy them in the market that are fit to eat. 
We want them cut while tender, almost as soon as 
the blossom falls off the end, while the truckmen do 
not cut them till the outer skin is as hard as Pharaoh's 
heart and we must cut them up with an ax. They are 
also much better when just picked than after knock- 
ing around for three or four days. 

Early Cukes. — We had cucumbers July 3^ notes 
Mrs. D. F. M., Suffolk county, New York, the preced- 
ing year we did not have them till the last week in July. 
I think that starting them in hotbeds makes a differ- 
ence of nearly three weeks. 

A. E. Ross, Strafford county, New Hampshire, 
gives further particulars about the early cucumber 
crop : I planted them in plum boxes eight inches 
square and four inches deep. I filled them about two- 
thirds full of good garden soil, then put in the seed. I 
placed them in a cold frame, made by nailing boards 



226 PRIZE GARDENING 

together like a box without top or bottom. I took off 
my double windows April 18, and placed them on top, 
thus making a very nice place to grow them. After 
they were up in good shape I thinned to four good 
strong plants. After the third leaf was well grown I 
filled the boxes full of rich soil, thus having the roots 
deep, and at the same time the plants were well sup- 
ported. June 19, I set them in open ground. It was 
so dry I could not set them before. I put in a ram and 
got water on the hill, June 16, so I had enough to keep 
them well watered. I dug large, deep holes, six feet 
apart, put in two large forkfuls of manure, and filled 
with top soil. I then opened the hill enough to admit 
the box. I cut the corners, flattened it out and left it 
there. I took a pail of water, poured it around the hill, 
then filled it up and pressed the soil. By this method 
I did not lose a plant, although some had vines 
eighteen inches long and all in bloom. 

Celery Was a Favorite Crop, both for first and 
second planting. An excellent account is given by 
C. P. Byington, Greene county, New York. The seed 
of Golden Self-Blanching was sown June 1, and trans- 
planted twice before being transferred to the garden, 
July 15; the first time, when the first leaves were well 
out, about three-fourths of an inch apart, and the 
second time, when about two inches high, to larger 
boxes and farther apart. When transferred to the 
garden the plants were about four inches high. About 
one-third of the top and roots were cut off with the 
shears, to insure a compact, stocky growth. A trench 
was dug nine inches deep and fifteen inches wide, into 
which was put equal parts of compost and soil, five 
inches deep, and the plants were set five inches apart. 

By this method the plants are started several 
inches below the surface, thereby obviating the neces- 
sity of ridging so high, combining the advantages of a 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 22^ 

partial trench system and avoiding, in a measure, the 
danger of severe drouth. Cultivation was carried on 
both sides of the trench merely to keep down the weeds 
and save moisture, working -just enough soil in the 
trenches to gradually fill them as the plants grew. 

The cultivator was continued every other day until 
September i, when the first ridging was done by going 
astride the row with Planet Jr plows, one being set 
each side the row to turn in. This operation was 
repeated September 15, and on October 2, boards were 
set up edgewise, about one foot distant from the rows 
on each side, to hold the bank while soil was shoveled 
against the plants. The tops of the plants were held 
together during this operation until banked up to the 
top leaves. 

Notwithstanding the care taken it seemed certain 
the crop would be a failure from lack of moisture. 
Owing to the long-continued drouth the water supply 
was barely sufficient for actual needs. The expedient 
was hit upon of saving all the wash water and slops 
from the house in barrels. Mr. Byington was thus 
enabled to water the plants thoroughly two or three 
times a week, always after sundown. While entailing 
a little extra labor, it was paid for in the quality and 
quantity of the product. The crop was gathered No- 
vember 2, and packed in boxes one foot deep, by 
placing the bunches close together one way, and one 
foot apart the other, covering the roots well with dry 
soil from the garden. The boxes were then put away 
in a cool, well-ventilated cellar. 

Banking and Bleaching is thus described by Fred 
W. Kilbourne of New Jersey: The Golden Self- 
Blanching celery grows upright arid we didn't touch it 
with our hands in banking. We first loosened the soil 
with the plow, threw the dirt as high as possible, then 
a few days later finished with a shovel. We banked 



228 PRIZE GARDENING 

three rows at a time, then a week later three more, and 
thus had a succession. It needs to be sold as soon as 
bleached, or it will rust and decay. We commenced 
selling about October ii, and sold about one row a 
week. On November 10 and n, put all the celery left 
unsold into the cellar, packing the bleached in a wide 
bed as close together as it could be packed. 

The unbleached we packed in beds about three 
feet wide and eighteen feet long, with a little sand on 
the roots. We used ten-inch hemlock boards for the 
sides. This celery will need watering about twice, 
for which I have a funnel made with a mouth about a 
foot wide, and a long spout, so that the water can be 
poured in and carried to the roots without wetting the 
foliage. We keep the cellar open night and day as 
long as it is safe, only closing at the approach of severe 
weather. 1 expect to have all celery sold, or in condi- 
tion to sell, by New Year's. 

A Northwestern Celery Grozver of experience, A. 
Brackett, Hennepin county, Minnesota, detailed fully 
his very successful methods : Celery seed was planted 
in drills eighteen inches apart, on moist, rich soil, on 
lake margin. The seedbed should be made very 
rich and the celery planted as soon as the ground can 
be worked in the spring. It should be kept thoroughly 
hoed and free from weeds. The plants should be large 
enough to plant any time between June 20 and July 10. 
The more compact the ground the more compact will 
be the celery. Celery grown on loose ground is apt to 
be pithy and spongy. 

The field in which we planted celery was plowed 
early in the spring, and kept thoroughly cultivated 
until the time of planting. With a marker we marked 
off rows five feet apart and ran a celery hiller through 
the rows, throwing the dirt each way, and leaving the 
rows about six inches deep. One load of completely 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 229 

rotted cow or sheep manure was scattered in about 
four hundred feet of row. With a narrow-toothed cul- 
tivator we worked the soil and manure together. Just 
before planting we took the plants up, trimmed off the 
tops and roots^ leaving a stub of about three inches. 

We planted with a dibber, and, the field being on 
the lake shore, watered all the rows before planting, 
as the weather was very dry. We kept all the weeds 
hoed out, and when the plants were well rooted we 
cultivated at least once a week. We commenced 
crowding up earth to the celery September i, and then 
only to keep the plants upright. We have found that 
celery banked in hot weather is subject to rust. We 
commenced banking about September 20, continuing 
the operation every few days until the celery was hilled 
to the top. 

It is safe to leave celery in the field in this latitude 
until November 1, when it should be taken up and put 
in trenches. 

We hold our celery in the trenches for the holi- 
day trade. We select a central position in the field 
where the celery is raised, take up and lay over a few 
rows, and with the large string plow work as deep as 
possible, a strip of ground eight feet wide and any 
length desirable. With a spade we dig a ditch in the 
center of the eight-foot strip, deep enough to allow the 
tops of the celery to come even with the surface. Have 
the celery piled along the trench within reach of the 
man who is to place in the trench, two stalks side by 
side, pressing enough dirt around the roots to hold in 
position. Leave a space of eight inches, digging a new 
trench, using the earth removed to fill up around the 
celery in the first row, and so on until the strip is filled. 
Let it stand in this shape until there is danger of freez- 
ing. Then cover with six inches of dirt and allow this 
layer to freeze nearly through to the celery, then cover 



23O PRIZE GARDENING 

with strawy manure, which will prevent frost working 
any farther. 

Celery buried in this manner is sure to keep 
until spring. Thirty-six square rods, planted according 
to the above, cost in labor and rent of ground, fifty 
dollars and ninety-five cents. Proceeds of sales were 
ninety-five dollars, leaving a profit of forty-five dollars 
and five cents. 

Blanching Celery with Leaf Mold. — C. Gross, 
Morgan county, Missouri, took two boards the length 
of the row and one foot wide, and placed them six 
inches distant from the plants, one on each side of the 
row, keeping them in place by small stakes. He next 
fitted a small board at each end, which was also held in 
place by stakes, or they might be lightly nailed together, 
forming a box. He now filled the space between the 
boards around the celery with leaf mold, straightening 
up the celery leaves while filling in. Water was then 
applied until the leaf mold was all moistened through. 
As it settled down more was put in and watered until 
the box was full of moist leaf mold. The celery Mr. 
Gross found to be perfectly and quickly blanched in 
this manner. 

Celery in Cellar. — November 8, W. McDermott, 
Saratoga county, New York, gathered his celery, 
placed it right side up as carefully as possible, in a box 
in the cellar, and kept the tops sprinkled with water 
say once in two weeks. He keeps celery crisp and 
tender nearly all winter in this way. 

Peas. — A good crop was grown in a dry, hot 
season, by the thorough methods which C. P. Byington 
describes. With wheel plows, furrows were made 
three and one-half feet apart and five to six inches 
deep, by plowing twice in the same furrow. The peas 
were then drilled in by hand, using one quart of seed 
to one hundred and fifty feet of drill, and covered by 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 23 1 

reversing plows to turn in, running through each 
furrow and covering the peas two to three inches, 
walking on the covered rows behind the plow to firm 
and compact the soil about the seed, and to retain 
moisture. The rows were made three and one-half feet 
apart, that early sweet corn might be planted between 
every other two rows of peas, leaving a clear space 
between each two rows of peas to facilitate picking. 
After the peas were planted and covered, the rows 
appeared as a shallow trench, about eight inches wide 
and three inches deep, which as the peas grew, was 
gradually filled level by cultivation. By this method 
the peas were started at a depth not so prone to be 
affected by surface conditions, and the better enabled 
thereby to resist drouth. 

Cultivation was begun as soon as the peas were 
up, by going through the rows with cultivators, follow- 
ing the cultivators with the rake attachments at the 
first cultivation, and subsequently once a week there- 
after, or after every third cultivation. The crop was 
cultivated three times a week until in full bloom, 
keeping the soil constantly stirred to a sufficient depth, 
smooth and free from weeds. 

The climatic conditions which prevailed were not 
conducive to the best results, but the grower had peas 
to eat while neighbors with larger area planted and 
better soil, reported an almost complete failure, having 
been obliged, many of them, to buy peas for family use, 
the severe drouth from early in spring lasting through- 
out the entire growing and bearing period of the crop. 

The first crop, planted April 15, while the ground 
was cool, and not so susceptible to dry weather, 
obtained a good start and was not so perceptibly affected 
by the drouth, giving a fair yield, twice as much for 
the area planted as the later plantings. 



232 PRIZE GARDENING 

Larze, Well-Filled Com. — L. E. Dimock of Con- 
nccticut tells how his premium corn was grown, as 
follows: May 29, he prepared two rows three feet 
apart, with spaces eighteen inches apart, and placed six 
kernels around the center, six inches apart. The seed 
was soaked in warm water thirty-six hours, and rolled 
in coal tar and then in land plaster. The tar prevented 
the crows and blackbirds from pulling it up. The 
plaster prevented the corn adhering together. This 
method was far superior to the old-fashioned scare- 
crow. When crows got one mouthful it proved a great 
plenty for the whole season. Many fields have been 
ruined by crows that gave the scarecrows no attention. 
The plants at intervals are thinned to four in a hill. 
Deep planting gave an opportunity for level culture, 
and hen manure spread broadcast with stable manure 
deep down in the earth caused the roots to run deep 
and no ill effect was experienced from dry weather. 
The suckers were taken off the same as in tobacco 
raising, which caused the whole strength to enter the 
ears, and much larger and well-filled ears were the 
result. 

Field corn matured much better to cut the stalks 
near the ear when the corn is in the milk. This method 
gave excellent fodder and much better ears. By the 
common way of cutting up and setting in stacks, much 
of the corn becomes moldy and damaged in a wet 
season. By this method Mr. Dimock found no injury 
occurred to fodder or ears. 

Make Several Plantings. — We are very fond of 
sugar corn, observes E. G. Packard, Kent county, 
Delaware, and by using several varieties and successive 
plantings a few days apart, I secured a steady and 
abundant supply from July 14 to October 1, and of 
tomatoes from June 28 to October 10. Also of lima 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 233 

beans from July 21 to October 2, when our first killing 
frost occurred. 

Second Growth Cabbage. — Growers are advised by 
Mrs. McDonald, Suffolk county, New York, to cut the 
cabbage head, leaving the stalk without any large 
leaves, and cabbage cut during July and August would 
have four small heads on each stalk in September and 
October. These were nice cooked, but were especially 
good for hens. 

L. E. Dimock's Cabbage. — The seeds were soaked 
in warm water thirty-six hours. A coating of hen 
manure was spread broadcast and a thin mulch of 
swale grass was spread over the surface. By this 
treatment in five days the plants began to push through 
the earth, the mulch was removed. Often stirring the 
soil and thinning to an inch apart, gave hardy stock 
plants that, when transplanted, lost no time in develop- 
ing. When taking up plants for transplanting, a 
manure fork is used. As much earth as possible is 
taken up with the plants and placed in a shallow box, 
after which they are given a thorough wetting. 
This causes the earth to cling to the roots, and 
plants thus treated can be transplanted in the 
heat of the day and take no hurt. Plants trans- 
planted July 8, in just four weeks measured across 
the leaves three by four inches ; four thousand of 
these kind of plants were set in the field July 6, and 
gave a field of cabbages much to be admired. Cabbage 
sown in beds broadcast, when transplanted are weak, 
puny things, often not having strength to stand alone, 
and may yield to the elements and leave their place 
vacant. Cabbage are vigorous growers when rightly 
treated. Mr. Dimock's method is to use new sward 
ground and thus no weeds nor club root. To destroy 
the little green worm that eats the heads, salt, with a 
little saltpeter, mixed together and sprinkled on the 



234 PRIZE GARDENING 

heads, caused the worms to depart and the cabbage to 
head solid. 

Spinach wants very little covering - , according to 
F. W. Kilbourne, New Jersey. The seed is large in 
proportion to the sprout that has to push it up. If it is 
planted deep and the ground crusts, it has trouble in 
getting through. 

"On November 20, the plants on my piece 
averaged about five inches across. With the beginning 
of winter I top-dress my spinach with short horse 
manure, about ten tons to the acre. It cuts at the rate of 
five hundred bushels to the acre. We begin cutting 
early in the spring, cutting out the biggest and then 
cultivating. The cultivating and the nitrate of soda, 
four hundred pounds to the acre, forces it." 

Egg Plc-ts. — Potato bugs destroyed all. the egg 
plants grown around Mr. Kilbourne's place. "But I 
saved mine," he says, "by giving them a heavy dose 
of bordeaux mixture. I noticed one time when using it 
for blight that the bugs did not admire the taste, and 
so I sprayed with a small sprayer that I use in the 
greenhouse, and it was pleasant to watch them march 
off the plants. Six plants that I left unprotected as 
an object lesson were completely destroyed. Antici- 
pating a frost, we had cut all the large egg plants, 
covered each fruit with a sheet of newspaper to 
keep them from the air and to prevent bruising, and 
stowed them away in the barn. We gathered in this 
way seven hundred fruit that sold at five cents apiece. 
The day after the frost we cut three hundred smaller 
ones, but they did not keep as well." 

C. P. Byington's Egg Plant. — Seed was sown in 
shallow boxes in the house, March 7, and germination 
and growth encouraged by keeping the soil well 
moistened with lukewarm water, and the box in a 
warm, sunny window. The method of transplanting 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 235 

and transferring to the garden was the same as for 
tomatoes. Cultivation was done regularly every other 
day, and maintained as long as possible without injury 
to the plants. When in blossom, early in June, a few 
potato bugs found them. These were picked off, and 
subsequently for a week the plants were looked over 
carefully every day and every bug destroyed ; the under 
side of the leaves was likewise examined for eggs 
and these also destroyed. No more trouble was 
experienced until the latter part of August, when, cul- 
tivation having been discontinued, the plants were 
neglected somewhat, and they were discovered to be 
literally covered with newly hatched bugs. These were 
at once brushed off into a pan and boiling water thrown 
over them. This operation was repeated every morn- 
ing for a week, when they were again free of both bugs 
and eggs. The first fruit was available for table use 
August 12, and constantly thereafter until October 2, 
when the few remaining fruits of good quality were 
picked off and kept in a cool place till used. 

One Woman's Way. — I have used pans green 
for cucumber bugs, writes Myra O. Peck, Ontario 
county, New York, but I like creosote better. To keep 
them bearing it is necessary to be careful in picking, 
and not step on the vines, neither break a curl. I did 
not put water on mine this year to keep them bearing, 
I hoed the dirt up so deep around them it is a wonder 
they lived at all, for we had no rain until too late to 
benefit the garden any. 

My method in raising parsnips is to keep the soil 
soft and hoed very deep. I thin them to about six 
inches apart. I also keep close watch for caraway 
worms; my only remedy is to pick them off and kill 
them. They also bother celery. 

In growing peppers, I set the plants about eigh- 
teen inches apart. After they get a good start, I go to 



2^6 PRIZE GARDENING 



the hencoop, get some compost, and hoe a little around 
each plant. I hoe very deep but not too close to them. 
I draw the dirt up around them, as they like deep soft 
earth. I have had some very large fruit of very 
fine quality. 

For beets and turnips, I follow the same method as 
in raising onions, beets are rather small owing to 
extreme dry weather. Some turnips weighed from 
four to five pounds. 

Spring Lettuce. — Seed was planted by A. 
Brackett, Hennepin county, Minnesota, the first week 
in March, in the greenhouse, and transplanted in rows 
three or four inches apart and one inch apart in the 
rows, then three weeks later transplanted again six 
inches apart each way. If watered and kept at the 
proper temperature, they will be ready for market 
in three or four weeks. Price there runs from twenty- 
five to thirty cents per dozen. His proceeds were 
forty-three dollars and eighty-three cents. Expenses, 
ten dollars and ten cents. 

Grozving Lettuce. — Three varieties of lettuce were 
planted by C. P. Byington, Greene county, New York. 
Iceberg was sown April 21, Cream Butter May 1, and 
Tyrol May 25. The seed was sown quite thickly in 
drills one foot apart, thinning out young plants to two 
or three inches apart. In a week or two these made 
nice, bunchy plants which were thinned as needed for 
the table, to about one foot apart, and left to head. The 
first tender leaves were available for the table twenty- 
eight days from seed, and the crop continued until 
the middle of July. Elegant heads of Iceberg were 
ready for the table the last of June. They were crisp, 
brittle and tender, and this is a fine variety in all stages. 
The other two varieties were tender when young, but 
did not head nicely or stand the drouth as well as 
Iceberg. 



SUCCESS WITH SPECIALTIES 237 

Plan for a Few Herbs. — Every gardener, as 
advised by George Osborne of Illinois, should have a 
plot for herbs, such as sage, dill, etc. As these are 
mostly perennials they should be planted where they 
will not interfere with the plowing of the garden. 

Starting Ginseng. — This unusual specialty, which 
is attracting increased attention because of the high 
prices quoted for the prepared roots, is briefly alluded 
to by John Frazer, Washington county, New York. 

Early in September three plots were chosen for 
planting ginseng. The plots were plowed and all stones 
and other obstructions forked out to the depth of one 
foot. Three barrels of fine, well-rotted manure were 
applied to each square rod of ground, well raked and 
mixed in to a depth of three inches. The ground was 
made very mellow and in fine condition. Each plot was 
divided in beds five, feet wide, by placing six-inch 
boards on edge, held in place by stakes driven into 
the ground. A walk of fifteen inches was between 
the beds. 



CHAPTER XVI 

PRIZE FLOWERS AND FRUIT 

The flower bed was an important annex to many 
family gardens in the contest, yet the floral portion of 
the garden received comparatively little attention in 
the majority of accounts. Although many expressed 
admiration and appreciation of flower products, the 
majority were contented with the simplest methods of 
growing them, as described in the various accounts in 
other chapters. 

Those who took special pride in the aesthetic side 
of gardening and with the same care and skill that they 
would employ with the money crops, prepared and 
cultivated their plots of seedlings, using choice seed, 
forcing with hotbeds and high culture, produced results 
which caused many a country estate to resemble a 
choice section of the garden of Eden. The grounds 
of a New York state gardener, R. N. Lewis, were at 
first comparatively bare and unattractive, but when 
the skillfully managed flower beds were in full bloom, a 
scene of beauty appeared of which a faint idea may be 
obtained from the accompanying picture. 

One of the few who made anything like a specialty 
of flowering plants was B. S. Higley of Ohio, the first 
regular prize winner. His very thorough and success- 
ful methods for sweet peas, begonias and dahlias are 
given nearly in full : 

Sweet Peas. — When the peas are ready to climb, 
I prepare a trellis in this way: The end posts were 
well braced when set. I nail to each post, crosswise of 
the rows, three pieces of two by four-inch pine, twelve 



24O PRIZE GARDENING 

inches long, one about eight inches from the ground, 
one midway of the post, and one at the top. By the 
use of nails and staples stretch three wires on each side 
as taut as possible and fasten them to the ends of the 
crosspieces. Thus I have three wires on each side of 
the row, about ten inches apart horizontally, and three 
feet up and down. I buy white binding twine, rather 
coarse, by the dozen balls. Begin at one end of the 
row and tie the twine to the top wire close to the post, 
then go down to the second wire on the same side, wind 
the twine twice around and knot at a distance of nine 
inches from the post. Then go down to the bottom wire 
and fasten the twine eighteen inches from the post. 
Come up to the middle wire and tie at a distance of 
twenty-seven inches from the post, and to the top wire 
at a distance of three feet. Thus I continue slanting 
forward down and up to the end of the row, when I 
return in precisely the same way, except that I tie the 
twine midway between the knots on the top and bottom 
wires and cross at the knots on the middle wire, tying 
there exactly over the former knot. This makes a 
cheap but very serviceable trellis. 

Buy good galvanized iron, not steel, wire, store it 
away in the fall and it will last for years. This trellis 
is easily cleaned away in the autumn, in which respect 
it differs totally from poultry netting. It is only 
necessary to run a sharp knife along the wires and cut 
the twine, when all the dead vines can be pulled off and 
carried to the refuse pile. 

Tuberous Begonias. — Early in March the tubers 
are potted in four-inch pots, with potting soil made of 
one-third sharp sand and two-thirds well-rotted sods 
and manure. Care must be taken to plant the bulbs 
right side up. I generally cover them about one-fourth 
of an inch and firm the soil around them compactly. 
The top of the soil should be nearly an inch below the 



PRIZE FLOWERS AND FRUIT 24 1 

top of the pot. As soon as planted, they are thoroughly 
watered and placed on a plant frame in a room where a 
fire is kept up night and day, the stand being in the 
darkest part of the room. About twice a week water is 
poured in so as nearly to fill the pots. In about a 
month the shoots appear, and in six weeks the pots are 
removed to another room, where the temperature is 
kept about fifty degrees. The pots are so placed that 
they will get the morning sun. Here they remain until 
the time for planting out. They are watered as before, 
and turned from time to time, since the plants will lean 
toward the sun. Starting in pots assures strong plants 
and early bloom. 

A few bulbs generally fail to start, so I buy half a 
dozen each year. About the middle of May the plants 
will range in hight from one and one-half to eight 
inches. I then plant them in rows eighteen inches apart 
and one foot in a row. The pots are given a thorough 
watering a few hours previous to transplanting. With 
a garden trowel a hole is dug six inches in diameter 
and six to eight inches deep. The plants are removed 
carefully from the pots and set at the same depth as 
before. Fill the hole nearly full with soil, water liber- 
ally, cover the wet soil with dry earth and firm 
compactly. 

Dahlias. — Last fall my dahlias, after the frost had 
killed the tops, had their stalks cut ofT about five inches 
above the ground. I cut the soil all around the plant 
with a spade, to the depth of a foot or more, taking 
care to keep not less than a foot away from the center 
of the plants. Then using the spade still, the plants 
were carefully lifted, taking care not to break off any 
of the attached tubers. I took considerable soil with the 
clump and removed carefully to a storeroom where they 
would not freeze, and permitted them to dry out for 
several days, when they were removed to a frost-proof 



242 PRIZE GARDENING 

cellar and stored side by side in shoe boxes. I never 
cover them at all, unless unusually cold, when I throw 
old bags over them. If the cellar is very dry it would 
be necessary to fill the boxes with dry sand to preserve 
the vitality of the tubers. When the time comes to 
plant, which is corn-planting time, handle the roots 
with extreme care so as to break off no tubers. Dig 
holes large enoug to hold the whole clump, plant 
and cover. 

The Water Lily Pond. — The artificial water lily 
pond is found to-day hidden under spreading boughs 
or in some shaded nook, silently nestling in a remote 
corner of many of our city lawns ; thriving equally as 
well, and perhaps better than at the country homes, 
where facilities for water and drainage are not so 
complete. The pond may be made about ten feet 
long by six feet wide, sunk into the greensward in 
a spot overhung with trees. The excavation, varying 
fom five to eight inches deep (so as not to be quite 
level), is well cemented and piped into the drain, 
enough soil being allowed to cover the roots of the 
plants. The water pipe is so arranged that fresh water 
can be used when required. 

Plenty of animal life keeps the plants healthy and 
the water from becoming stagnant. Numerous tad- 
poles, frogs, toads, a few goldfish and perch are useful 
inhabitants of the picturesque pond. The tall cat-tails 
vie with the Japanese iris, reflecting its own purple, 
yellow and white radiance in the watery mirror beneath. 
At the extreme end of the pond may be planted the 
root of an Egyptian water lily (Nymphaca lotus), 
the rose and favorite flower of ancient Egypt. It 
thrives in stagnant or slowly running water, and as 
each day it grows in beauty and ornamentation, it 
reveals but little of the life-sustaining properties imbed- 
ded in its roots, which are meat and substance to the 



PRIZE FLOWERS AND FRUIT 



243 



people in the Menzaleh lake district and to many living 
along the Nile and on the shores of the adjacent 
rivulets. 

Kissing the sunbeams at the feet of the iris and 
cat-tails are the floating leaves of the water lilies, 
spreading their broad, flat surface on the quiet water 
with a scrupulous regard of ownership in this lily pond. 
Between the leaves here and there peeps a bud, as if 









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PEACH TREES IN AN ARKANSAS GARDEN 

ashamed of its own boldness, which by to-morrow will 
gain courage and unfold its beautiful wax-like petals 
to be nursed into full bloom beneath the sheltered rays 
of the warm sunlight. The lily pond, a fresh and 
cooling oasis, even in a garden of rare flowers, will give 
the most satisfaction for the least amount of labor of 
any gardening that can be undertaken. In the fall a 



244 



PRIZE GARDENING 



thick coverlet of leaves keeps the plants and animal life 
intact until called from their dormant state by the first 
songs of spring. 

Fruit trees in the garden often added materially 
to the profit side of the account. In other cases, how- 




PROLIFIC CURRANTS 



ever, they were considered a decided drawback to the 
general success of the garden. Several contestants 
insist that a highly successful garden must be wholly 
free from shade of any kind. In the irrigated gardens 
where the vast amount of water taken up by the tree 



PRIZE FLOWERS AND FRUIT 245 

roots can be artificially replaced, trees and vegetables 
seem to get along better together than under ordinary 
conditions. The illustration shows the thrifty growth 
of peach trees in an Arkansas garden. 

Small fruits, especially strawberries and currants, 
were frequently a part of the prize gardens, and the 
description has been given with the rest of the account. 

A Minnesota Grower. — Five years ago, writes 
John Tye of Minnesota, I trfed an experiment of laying 
down my blackberry and raspberry canes by bending 
them over and covering them with straw or coarse 
litter, but when spring came the mice had killed all 
the canes, by eating the bark off around the bottom. 
In August I cut out all the old canes, thin out the 
small, weak canes, and cut off the tops from those left, 
about four feet from the ground. After that they grow 
thick and stocky, mature the wood, and I think stand 
the cold winter much. better than when they are left to 
thicken and are not cut back. My blackberries make a 
hedge two and one-half feet thick by four feet high, 
and any cane that grows outside of that limit is cut off. 
Thus it is easy for the girls to pick the berries without 
much trouble, the canes grow so stocky they never need 
any tying up, and the bearing canes are strong enough 
in the spring to hold up the new canes as they grow up 
through them. 

The currant branch in the hand of the little girl 
is a branch that was cut back to about five buds of 
the new wood. That is all new growth grown during 
the spring which is above the fruit. 



CHAPTER XVII 

LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS . 

After a study of these hundreds of garden 
accounts, an impression is received of candor and out- 
spoken truthfulness. There is scarcely an instance 
where inspection or outside investigation shows the 
least sign of intention to conceal and mislead. Facts 
were stated with the greatest completeness, including 
some cases of almost humiliating loss and failure. It 
would be difficult to pick out several hundred persons 
of any other business or profession who would describe 
the operations of a year with such frank completeness, 
generously passing along to others the gains of their 
experience and thought. 

The substance of the accounts brings out strikingly 
the fact that any reasonably successful garden may be 
expected to pay for itself, including fair wages for all 
work, and leave something for net profit. The showing 
of the garden in the line of profits was evidently a 
surprise to many contestants who had never figured 
up the produce at wholesale price, nor noticed how 
few full days' work were needed, especially with 
modern implements ana methods. 

Cost and Value of a Garden. — The figures which 
are here presented are based upon the reports of five 
hundred and fifteen gardens located in nearly every 
state and territory, Canada and the provinces, so they 
may be considered as accurate and reliable. Covering 
such a vast territory, local conditions, which might give 
different figures, are avoided and the summary becomes 



LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 247 

a reliable basis of estimate and is the only thing of the 
kind ever published. 

EXPENSE AND PROFIT OF THE GARDEN 

Farm Village 

Size, square feet 24,372 14,866 

Value of garden $48.81 $568.34 

Value of tools 18.61 16.93 

Interest and taxes 3- 21 22.73 

Use of tools 1.27 1-70 

Labor 26.34 ig.59 

Seed 4-32 8.68 

Fertilizer 775 7-12 

Incidental expenses 78 -50 

Total cost 43-67 60.32 

Value of products used 54-04 54-50 

Value of products sold 30.96 7-00 

Total value of products 85.00 61.50 

Profit 41.33 1-28 

Gardens have been separated into two classes 
—those on farms and those planted by village residents, 
and an interesting comparison can be made between the 
two, as shown in the accompanying table. Size and 
value are the two most noticeable differences. The 
farmer who wants a garden either takes the little 
fenced-in spot that has served for this purpose for so 
many years, or goes out in the field and lays off a piece 
of half an acre, or as much as needed. The village 
and city resident is confined to the back yard or the 
vacant lot. Thus his plot is necessarily smaller and 
being valuable for building purposes is worth more 
than" the country garden. The figures for value are 
the average of fifty-six village gardens, which range 
from twenty-five dollars to one thousand eight hundred 
and seventy-five dollars in value, and at the rate of 
from one hundred dollars to over four thousand dollars 
per acre. The range of value per acre of farm gardens 
is not quite as great, being as low as five dollars per 
acre for unimproved prairie land, to three hundred 
dollars for small California farms with irrigation 



248 PRIZE GARDENING 

rights. The average value of nearly fifty dollars for 
a garden of a trifle over half an acre is a conservative 
figure. While it is probably double the value of the 
farm land, the increase is due to the permanent improve- 
ment of fruit trees, plants and vines, asparagus and 
rhubarb beds, hotbeds, etc. 

The value of tools is a trifle higher for the farm 
gardens, as would be expected; for horse cultivators, 
plows and harrows which are also used on the farm 
are often figured in. For this reason we estimate seven 
per cent for the use of tools here and ten per cent for 
those used in village gardens, where they are employed 
for no other purpose. 

Interest and Taxes are difficult items to figure, 
for the conditions are so dissimilar. In the case of 
farm gardens we have the case of highly improved 
property used principally for the production of garden 
vegetables and fruits. On the other hand, village gar- 
dens are largely vacant lots or back yards whose chief 
value is for building purposes. As vacant lots they are 
unimproved property, and held often for speculative 
purposes, but as back yards they form a part of the 
home grounds and a figure proportionate to the value 
of the entire lot is given them by the owners. 

The summaries show that seven and six-tenths per 
cent was allowed for interest and taxes on the value 
of farm gardens and four per cent on that of village 
gardens. With one per cent of the latter for taxes, 
which would approach two per cent of the assessed 
valuation, we have three per cent left as interest, which 
is as much as should be charged up against the land 
for gardening purposes. Taking out the interest and 
taxes from the total cost of the garden we have thirty- 
seven dollars and fifty-nine cents as the actual cost 
of producing the vegetables which grew in village gar- 
dens, and forty dollars and forty-six cents on the farm. 



LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 249 

Labor Cost is the most important item. It may be 
said that the cost of a good garden is eternal vigilance. 
It is not so much the total amount of labor required 
as that it be employed at the proper time. One hour 
a day throughout the season will, with the use of suit- 
able tools, take care of a garden of less than half an 
acre. The village gardens have been worked with the 
most economical expenditure of labor. This is because 
hand cultivators have been used to do most of the 
work, and, secondly they have been kept freer of weeds 
for several years. Many farm gardens are foul with 
weeds, being utterly neglected during the latter part 
of the season, and the hoe and hand work still play 
too prominent a part in the cultivation. Gardens laid 
out in long, narrow pieces to allow of horse cultivation 
have been worked with the greatest economy of labor. 

In the matter of seed the difference is quite sur- 
prising. In this item have been included cabbage, 
tomato and other plants which have been bought for 
transplanting. Most village gardeners have had to 
purchase these, while hotbeds are more numerous upon 
the farm in which these plants are raised. Then, too, 
villagers buy more of the novelties and new, high- 
priced varieties of vegetables and spend considerably 
more for flowers, bulbs and plants. 

Manures and Fertilizers. — The expense for fer- 
tilizers and manure is in favor of the farm, where 
stable manure, upon which a nominal price is fixed, 
is largely used. Besides this, one hundred and ninety- 
five gardeners used no manure r ~ fertilizer or failed to 
make report of any. Stable manure leads all other 
forms of plant food in popularity. In two hundred 
and twelve reports it was used exclusively, f orty-thr :e 
used commercial fertilizer or chemicals and sixty-five 
used both manure and fertilizers or chemicals. Fresh 
manure is apt to contain many weed and grass seeds, 



25O PRIZE GARDENING 

but all gardeners have a liking for the use of well- 
rotted manure, which is not understood by users of 
commercial fertilizer. The reason is simple. Land 
which is cropped continually with hoed crops grows 
heavy from the lack of humus. This is supplied by 
the manure, the liberal use of which enables the gar- 
dener to keep his ground loose and friable. 

The most remarkable comparison is probably 
between the value and amount of produce consumed 
by the families of the two classes. It is practically the 
same. The greater consumption of standard sorts of 
vegetables by farmers' families is offset by a freer use 
of the rarer sorts, and of flowers, by village people. 
From the amount sold one must not judge that farmers 
sell the best and eat the rest. In all cases they have 
consumed all that were wanted and the kinds sold 
were very largely a surplus of onions, cabbage, squash, 
beets and carrots. 

From the farm gardens thirty-six per cent of the 
produce was sold, which paid seventy-one per cent of 
the total cost of the garden, while less than twelve per 
cent of the cost of the village garden was paid by the 
eleven per cent of produce sold. The farm garden 
paid a profit of ninety-four per cent on total cost as 
against two per cent for the village garden. Leaving 
out the item of interest and taxes, the farm garden 
returned one hundred and thirteen per cent profit on 
cost and the village garden sixty-three per cent. 

Profits of Small Market Gardens. — The average 
size of farm gardens was found to be a trifle over half 
an acre and of village gardens one-third of an acre, 
the latter being of ample size to produce enough vege- 
tables for an ordinary family. The farm garden 
proved a source of revenue, thirty-six per cent of the 
total produce being sold. 



LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 25 1 

The value of produce was eighty-five dollars per 
garden, or at the rate of one hundred and seventy dol- 
lars per acre, and the net profit was forty-one dollars 
and thirty-three cents, or at the rate of eighty-two 
dollars and sixty-six cents per acre. This is more 
than any farm crop can approach. Now if these gar- 
dens can be extended to four times the size or greater, 
they will become quite an important source of the 
farmer's income. On the majority of farms the lack 
of a good nearby market will prevent the attempt at 
gardening on a commercial scale, except in favored 
localities specially adapted to certain crops. But where 
one is located within five miles of a good-sized village 
or city, a small market garden may be made a consid- 
erable source of revenue. 

There are two lines of gardening which may be 
followed. First, general gardening, in which most of 
the common kinds of vegetables are planted and mar- 
keted at wholesale at stores and butcher shops, or 
at retail by peddling from house to house. 

Second, special gardening, in which only a few 
kinds are grown, such as may be raised with the least 
amount of labor, those which are in greatest demand, 
or those for which a certain plot of ground is particu- 
larly well adapted. 

Local conditions and circumstances must govern 
which kind of gardening each should attempt. If one 
takes up market gardening as the main part of his 
work, the most profit will be found in growing a full 
line of vegetables and selling at retail, unless he pro- 
duces them in such large quantities that this method 
is impractical. But where the work is taken up in 
connection with running a farm, and partly as a side 
issue, it will be found more profitable generally to raise 
only a few kinds of such sorts as can be harvested and 



2$2 PRIZE GARDENING 

marketed in large quantities, such, for instance, as 
onions, squash, turnips, carrots and sweet corn. 

The small market gardens of those contestants 
who sent in reports gave a net profit of one hundred 
and seventeen dollars and two cents per acre. They 
averaged two and one-half acres in size, were valued 
at three hundred and twenty-two dollars and twenty- 
two cents, or one hundred and forty-three dol- 
lars and twenty cents per acre, and produced four 
hundred and forty-seven dollars and seventy-three 
cents worth of products, or at the rate of one 
hundred and ninety-nine dollars per acre, at a 
cost of one hundred and eighty-seven dollars and 
twenty-seven cents, or eighty-one dollars and ninety 
cents per acre. The value of tools used was fifty- 
five dollars and fifty-seven cents. The labor cost 
one hundred and eleven dollars and sixty-one cents, 
seed fifteen dollars and fifty cents, fertilizers twenty- 
two dollars and twenty-five cents, interest and taxes 
twenty-four dollars and seventeen cents, use of tools 
three dollars and eighty-nine cents, and incidental 
expenses six dollars and eighty-five cents. These lat- 
ter included barrels, boxes and baskets, twine, poles, 
insect poisons, etc. 

The family consumed fifteen per cent of the total 
productions, or sixty-seven dollars and fifteen cents 
worth, which is considerably more than the amount 
used from the farm and village gardens. This is 
partly accounted for by the fact that the sweet corn 
fodder, poor cabbage and many of the beets, turnips 
and carrots were fed to the stock, and figured in with 
the amount consumed. It is highly probable that the 
actual average consumption per family was also 
greater, owing to there being a greater abundance of 
vegetables on hand at all seasons. 

Reducing the figures to a basis of an acre, we find 



LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 253 

the cost of labor to be forty-nine dollars and sixty cents, 
seed six dollars and eighty-eight cents and fertilizer 
nine dollars and eighty-eight cents. The figures for 
seed and fertilizer seem somewhat low, particularly for 
the latter. This would buy but one-fourth ton of a 
high-grade commercial fertilizer, while one thousand 
five hundred pounds would not be an excessive amount, 
and many gardens use much more. 

How to Make the Garden Pay. — The first work to 
be done to make the garden pay is to put the soil in 
condition for planting. 

No matter what the character of the soil, it should 
never be stirred when so wet that the particles will not 
separate freely when the spade or the plow and the 
harrow are used. It must always be made as fine as 
it is possible to make it. If the plot is sma.l, the spad- 
ing fork, if properly used, will leave the soil in fit 
condition for planting; excepting for very fine seeds, 
when it will be necessary to use a fine rake, as not a 
particle of earth should be as large as the seed that is 
to be put in it. 

The manure used should have been provided sev- 
eral months ago, so that it can be pulverized as finely 
as the soil. Then it should be so thoroughly and 
evenly incorporated that the one could scarcely be dis- 
tinguished from the other. When commercial fer- 
tilizers are used, as they always should be, in equal pro- 
portions, when the soil is continually worked, let them 
be evenly distributed. 

No matter what the size of the plot may be, not 
more than one-fourth — one-sixth would be better — 
should be used in the first planting. For profit, as well 
as for pleasure, plantings should be made at frequent 
intervals, because there are but few vegetables that are 
in the best condition for use longer than a few days. 
As soon as the first planting is made, preparation for 



254 PRIZE GARDENING 

the second should commence, and so on to the end of 
the season. The moment the first planting has been 
gathered, clear the ground as quickly as possible and 
prepare for a second planting, and follow up this plan 
the entire season. The preparation of the soil, so far 
as the application of manure is concerned, and making 
it fine, must be as thorough for each subsequent crop 
as for the first. Do not think that once working and 
once feeding is sufficient 'for the season; it is not. 

No more manure should be used at one time than 
a given crop will require. A surplus is nearly as fatal 
to the production of a crop as a deficit. Plants to be 
productive must needs have just as much nourishment 
as they can assimilate ; but not be stimulated to excess, 
which is fatal to productiveness. 

For success, every foot of the soil should be con- 
stantly at work producing something. Nature will 
not tolerate idleness; if the gardener does not plant, 
she will. There is no reason why, in ordinary seasons, 
the garden cannot be as green and productive in 
August as in June. To that end, intensive cultivation 
is a necessity. The surface must at all times be cov- 
ered with a growing crop, and so thickly as to, in a 
great measure, prevent evaporation. But by no means 
plant so thickly that each plant cannot have all the room 
for growth and air required. 

Room for a horse to walk between the rows is the 
poorest economy possible, besides it is not necessary. 
For instance, when we set our cabbage or cauliflower 
plants, which require the greater part of the season to 
mature, make an intermediate row of some quick- 
growing vegetable. 

Imitate our up-to-date market gardeners near all 
large cities. When they set their early cabbage plants, 
they are in rows thirty inches apart, the plants fifteen 
inches apart in the row. Between these plants they 



LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 255 

put a plant of lettuce, and between each row of cabbage 
a row of lettuce ; then between the rows of cabbage 
and lettuce they sow a row of radishes, which gives but 
about seven inches to a row of vegetables. — [C. L. 
Allen, New York. 

What Should a Garden Contain? — This will 
depend largely upon the size and tastes of the family. 
It must contain what we might call the standbys, such 
as sweet corn, potatoes, beans, peas, cabbages, toma- 
toes and beets. In addition, I would add a large 
asparagus bed of some mammoth variety, a good straw- 
berry bed of the best sorts, currants, gooseberries, 
blackberries and other small fruits, with a good-sized 
bed of rhubarb. 

I have tested many varieties of small fruits and 
vegetables and have discarded the greater part. No 
one can tell their value by the testimony of seedsmen 
and peddlers. A test is the only certain way. In 
Illinois, I used to raise many bushels of raspberries, 
but here it is difficult to get them to grow. Besides 
the vegetables and fruit mentioned above, I would add 
salsify, carrots, radishes and parsnips. Of course the 
likes and dislikes of every family must govern the 
plan to a large extent. 

In raising tomatoes, I put but one plant in a place. 
Set the plants in rows four feet apart and the plants 
four feet apart in the row. Get only the best kinds 
and those that you know are valuable. Of most vege- 
tables, secure very early and late varieties, so that you 
will have them throughout the season. A good garden 
must be well plowed and spaded and then harrowed 
or raked, so as to make fine the seed bed. Then the 
seed must be well planted, not too deep nor too shal- 
low. After the plants are up, give thorough cultiva- 
tion, keeping the ground well stirred and clear of 
weeds. The wheel hoe must be used freely in a well- 



256 PRIZE GARDENING 

kept garden. One man can do more with it in two 
hours than he can in a whole day with the old- 
fashioned kind. — [E. S. Phelps. 

Growing and Showing Vegetables. — There can be 
no general rule regarding the proper size of vegetables 
or fruits for exhibition, but the present custom of 
exhibiting vegetables of a smaller size than formerly 
is a great improvement. This applies particularly to 
such vegetables as potatoes, beets, carrots and parsnips, 
as the tendency of these is to grow too large ; but with 
such as salsify and horse-radish, the larger they are 
(providing they are fairly smooth) the better. To 
have any of these roots in good condition to exhibit, 
they should be matured, or nearly so, and to get the 
plumpness and color which is desirable they should 
have an abundance of potash. 

The tendency to give prizes to extra large speci- 
mens of potatoes is not encouraged at this time, and, 
as the exhibitors are after prizes, if the judges rec- 
ognize only medium-sized, smooth specimens, those 
will soon be the kind exhibited. I have raised potatoes 
of fair quality and smoothness on very heavily manured 
market garden land, but they are not a crop that 
responds to heavy manuring. 

To grow the best and handsomest potatoes pos- 
sible, I would use no manure the year the potatoes are 
planted, but from one thousand to two thousand pounds 
good fertilizer per acre, about one-half broadcast and 
one-half in the drill, thoroughly mixed, using large 
seed cut to two-eye pieces, and planted early in May 
in drills eighteen to twenty-two inches by thirty to 
forty-two inches apart, the latter distances for the late 
varieties. Give thorough cultivation and plenty of 
paris green and bordeaux mixture, and you should 
have potatoes of the best quality. 



LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 257 

Perhaps there is no vegetable that is more often 
exhibited and wrongly judged than celery. Celery, to 
be good for the table or market, should have a head 
as much as lettuce or cabbage, and to get this head it 
is necessary to sacrifice the older leaves ; in fact, as you 
bring the head to perfection you lose all of the outer 
leaves, but the same is true of lettuce or cabbage. 
Bunches of what I call " celery leaves " may occasion- 
ally be picked from among heads of good celery, but 
the methods of growing the two are entirely different. 

To grow the bunch of celery leaves, the plants 
must have considerable room and a long season of 
growth. They may grow quite rapidly at first, but 
should continue growing less and less as they near 
maturity, because a sudden start will cause the heart 
to develop, the outer leaves to soften, and a head will 
then begin to form. I have seen them and have raised 
some, but do not try to grow them now, as they are 
not wanted in the markets. In growing the heads of 
celery, the method early in the season makes but little 
difference except in regard to the size of the head. If 
you would have a shouldered head of nice proportions, 
and not too tall, the plants must be set ten or more 
inches apart; but if you want nice celery for family 
use or market, from four to six inches should give a 
more satisfactory crop. To get celery of the best qual- 
ity it must be grown rapdly, and it is quite important 
that it should take an extra start when we begin to 
blanch it. 

Celery that is banked with earth gets this start 
from the cutting of the roots and the chance that those 
roots which are left get to work up into the soft earth 
of the bank. Perhaps the best way to start golden 
celery that is to be boarded is to give a good watering 
and work the ground about the time the boards are set 
up. This gives celery of fair quality, but no method 



258 PRIZE GARDENING 

will give as good celery in the early fall as can be pro- 
duced later when the weather becomes cooler. Celery 
grown in this way will not keep so well as that of 
poorer quality. — [H. R. Kinney, Massachusetts. 

For Early Garden Vegetables. — The ground 
should be plowed deep and w< manured to insure the 
quick growth of all vegetables. I find the addition 
of a little lime does well in our soil, though it might 
not on all soils. It does not pay to plant seeds in the 
open ground until it has become warm. They will 
not germinate readily, and many of them will be lost. 

When very early cucumbers are wanted, I have 
found it an excellent way to place pieces of sod six 
inches square on boards and plant the seeds in them. 
I keep the sods by the kitchen stove until the plants 
are up, then I remove to a south window upstairs near 
the stovepipe or chimney, where they get heat from 
below as well as the warm sun most of the day. As 
soon as danger of frost is past I plant my sods out 
and thus I have cucumbers at least four weeks earlier 
than I otherwise would. The same course can be pur- 
sued with melons, and when one raises melons for 
market it is quite an item to have a dozen hills bearing a 
month before any of the other growers. 

Sweet corn can also be grown in the same way 
and when one has the variety known as Six Weeks, 
it does not take long after setting out to have early 
corn. Of course the window must be kept open when 
there is no danger of frost, so that the plants may all 
be hardy, and not notice the difference in climate when 
set out. 

I always start my tomatoes and cabbages in the 
house and have learned that young tomatoes take root 
very easily and that it is an advantage rather than 
otherwise to transplant them. 

Peas should be planted as soon as the ground is 



LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 259 

warm enough for them to germinate. They require 
an abundance of manure mixed with deeply broken 
soil, and should be planted at least two inches deep. 
I always start my early celery in the house and set it 
out as soon as I do my cabbages and tomatoes. 

Lettuce can be grown large enough for use in a 
sunny window. I have grown it that way and we 
have had it to eat from the first of March all through 
the season. — [Geneva March, Iowa. 

Some Good Vegetables Not Generally Grown. — 
Some of the most desirable garden vegetables are neg- 
lected by most farmers and many village gardeners. 
Spinach should be planted either in the fall or the first 
thing in the spring, then it will come in when other 
greens are scarce. If this is once tried you will never 
be without it. Prepare a small bed in some sunny 
part of the garden as soon as the frost is out. Sow 
the seed and nature will do the rest. 

Cauliflower is another neglected vegetable. It is 
almost as easily grown as cabbage. It requires about 
the same treatment and in many respects is even more 
desirable. The only difficulty I find in growing good 
cauliflower is to get good seed, and if ordered from 
some reliable house there will be no trouble. Get Hen- 
derson's Snowball or Burpee's Early. Another vege- 
table not common and which requires no great skill is 
kohl-rabi. This should be sown early for spring and 
summer use and then later in the summer sow for 
winter. It is given the same treatment as the turnip 
and possesses some of the characteristics of both the 
turnip and cabbage. 

No garden is complete without a good supply of 
celery. Sow a few seeds in a hotbed or in boxes in 
the house, then in July transplant to rows in the gar- 
den, These should be about one foot apart in the row 
and the rows four or five feet apart. This can be set 



260 PRIZE* GARDENING 

between rows of early peas or beans and the ground 
thus made to produce two crops in one season. As 
soon as the first crop is removed, give thorough 
cultivation. For blanching, the soil may be thrown up 
about the plants, or if you have a few old tiles these 
can be slipped over the bunches of celery and they will 
whiten nicely. The dwarf varieties, such as Boston 
Market and White Plume, are generally the earliest 
and best for amateurs. 

A few plants of Brussels sprouts will be found 
quite an addition, and as these are a kind of cabbage, 
the treatment is the same as for cabbage or cauliflower. 
The plants grow from two and one-half to four feet 
high and bear small heads, which are tender and crisp. 
They should be cooked or served about the same as 
cabbage. If your family is fond of soups, sow a short 
row of okra. The seed should be placed a few inches 
apart, then later thinned so that the plants will be 
one and one-half feet apart. This crop grows very 
easily and the long, tender seed pods will be found an 
excellent addition to any soup. The pods can also be 
gathered and dried and kept for winter use. 

One of the very best and least known garden 
plants is salsify, or vegetable oyster. This is very 
hardy and is as easily grown as parsnips. Sow early 
in the spring in rows twelve or fourteen inches apart. 
When the crop is wanted for winter, take up late in 
the fall and spread in boxes and cover with soil. The 
roots will keep nicely until spring. They will prob- 
ably shrivel somewhat, but when placed in water will 
regain their natural appearance. Properly cooked, 
some people prefer this to the genuine oyster. Prob- 
ably the best varieties are Mammoth Sandwich Island 
and Bond's Mammoth. — [F. B. Van Orman, Iowa. 

A Practical Farm Gardener. — I do not think it 
advisable to use the same piece of ground for a long 



LESSONS FROM THE WINNERS 26l 

term of years ; and so have this year set apart a spot 
never worked as a garden before. As it was very 
rich I have not plowed under any manure. When 
ready to plant in the spring I shall plow again and 
use some commercial fertilizer for certain crops. I 
find that no part of my farm yields more toward the 
support of my family than my garden, and so 1 am not 
very caretul to limit the extent of its bounds. 

I find that it does not pay to begin work in 
the garden too soon in the spring, especially if 
the soil be clay. I have seen some gardens spoiled 
for the entire season by plowing when too wet. 
The soil was heavy at plowing and made more 
so by the heavy rains of spring and the sun- 
shine. Of all discouraging places to work, a hard- 
baked garden is the most so. But when the earth is 
fairly dry and warm, I plow and thoroughly harrow 
my garden. If the ground be old, a liberal supply of 
commercial fertilizer should be harrowed in. We used 
to plant some kind of vegetables, such as onions, rad- 
ishes and beets, in square or oblong beds ; but we some 
time ago learned that too much labor was required to 
keep the weeds subdued, and have since put everything 
into rows, so that the horse and cultivator may do the 
work formerly done by hand. 

The preliminaries arranged, what shall we put in 
our garden? With us, this plan prevails. Peas and 
onions go in first. We aim to have new peas by the 
latter part of June or the Fourth of July at the latest. 
Then come early potatoes. Our favorites are Early 
Vermont and Early Market. At first a couple of rows 
are planted lengthwise of the garden, to be followed 
in a week or two by another two rows. These furnish 
new potatoes to go with the peas for the Fourth, and 
our table supply all summer long comes from these 
few rows in the garden. . 



262 PRIZE GARDENING 

Radishes quickly follow, and as soon as the 1st 
to the 10th of May we begin to put in sweet corn. Of 
this we make two and often three plantings. We are 
very fond of this delicacy and manage to have it early 
and late in the season. Crosby's Early and Perry's 
Hybrid are favorites for early planting, and for later 
use Stowell's Evergreen. Beans, cucumbers, squashes 
and beets may come now at any time. Tomato, celery, 
turnip and cabbage plants are started in the house 
early and set out at intervals in June. We like toma- 
toes very much and usually put out about twenty-five 
plants for our own use. A row of rhubarb plants 
along one side of the garden furnishes material for 
sauce and pies early in the season. At one end of our 
garden we also have a few raspberries and grapevines. 
Strawberries we have in another field. Just as soon 
as the potatoes begin to peep out we start the culti- 
vator, and from that time on we keep the horse and 
plow busy subduing weeds. What cannot be done in 
that way we finish with the hand hoe. 

All that remains from the summer's using is care- 
fully harvested in the fall. Celery we bank in October 
and take in a month later, packing it with plenty of 
dirt in a deep box in the cellar and covering it with old 
sacks. Here it bleaches nicely and keeps till far into 
the winter. Giant Paschal we hold to be the finest. 
It is very tender and remains fresh until February. 
Our garden is no longer a source of pleasure and 
profit ; it has come to be an absolute necessity. Very 
few of us realize how much help a good garden is in 
maintaining the family. Such a garden as I have 
described is in every way practical upon every farm. — 
[Edgar L. Vincent, New York. 

Marketing. — In all sections of the country, prices 
for garden stuff seem to rule comparatively high. In 
the corn and wheat belts, where staple farm produce 



LESSSONS FROM THE WINNERS 263 

is low in price, vegetables are in some towns scarce and 
high, and in the drier sections of the prairie states a 
good garden appears almost an object of curiosity, 
while prices are correspondingly high. Pacific coast 
gardeners complain that Chinese competition keeps 
prices down, yet some assert that Chinese gardeners 
cannot compete with a garden worked with improved 
implements. Highest prices were reported by garden- 
ers located near mining settlements. Even in small 
farming towns, where it might be supposed that most 
people would have good gardens of their own, prize 
gardeners often found a demand far in excess of what 

they had to sell. 

Where no market was convenient, enterprising 
gardeners brought one to the farm; in other words, 
they took summer boarders. Some who did not care 
to take boarders sold vegetables to those who did. Still 
another says : " I sold my garden truck mostly to 
summer cottagers that were staying here, and so saved 
all expense of teaming. It was a great pleasure to 
them, as they rould watch the garden from start to 
finish." These " cottagers " are people who come to 
the country to live in camp style for the summer and 
are willing to pay city prices for the best vegetables 

and fruit. 

In some cases produce was sold to peddlers who 
came to the farm or garden and paid wholesale prices, 
gathering the produce themselves. The surplus of 
small city gardens was often eagerly bought by neigh- 
bors glad of a chance to secure produce fresh from 
the soil. But by far the most common method of dis- 
posal was to team the truck to the nearest town or city, 
either selling it to storekeepers or peddling from house 
to house. Those who had retail routes of this kind 
usually found them very profitable. In computing the 
wholesale price, they charged off from ten to thirty 



264 PRIZE GARDENING 

per cent for retailing, but it was several times stated 
that dealers sometimes sold produce at an advance of 
forty or fifty or even one hundred per cent above the 
price they had paid the grower. 

retailing it is of advantage in many ways to 
make regular trips and to take orders in advance. One 
gardener advertised in the local papers for customers 
to leave orders at a certain store. These orders were 
filled on the following day. Others took their own 
orders direct as they made regular trips. Writes A. E. 
Ross : " My marketing was all done in the shortest 
possible time. My method was as follows : I take 
my load over; it is all sold before I start. That is, I 
go to my customers, the same as this morning, take 
their orders for the next morning. I come home, get 
my load ready over night, and start at six o'clock the 
next morning. I go directly and deliver and take my 
orders for the next morning. In this way I have no 
running around, but get home to do a day's work. I 
never take an order that I cannot fill." 

Tact in choosing crops often played an important 
part in creating a market where none seemed to exist. 
Such excellent vegetables as celery, cauliflower, egg 
plant, muskmelon, etc., are often very scarce in markets 
otherwise well supplied. Early cabbages, tomatoes, 
potatoes, turnips, etc., often sold well in places where 
the late crop of the same vegetable was a glut. The 
superior produce of irrigated gardens sometimes had 
great advantage. 

Observes W. T. Brickey : " Whatever is grown 
for market should be ready at the time when people 
are hungry for that sort of thing, for the human appe- 
tite is as changeable as the moon." The gardener who 
can thus master the market needs no other receipt for 
money making. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 

To shed further light upon the results of the con- 
test, a list of several questions was sent to the twenty- 
five leading winners, asking their advice on subjects 
considered of direct practical interest, and upon which 
the experience of the contestants would especially qual- 
ify them to express an opinion. 

Size of Garden. — The majority of replies suggest 
that a small garden is sufficient for the average farm. 
One-eighth acre is the size most often mentioned ; 
many advise one-fourth acre or one-half acre and most 
of the remaining replies range between one-fourth and 
one acre. A few think large acreage desirable. A 
great many advise a rectangular piece and planting in 
long rows, allowing the use of horse implements in 
cultivation ; rows to be the greatest length that the field 
will permit. 

A good-sized, well-arranged garden is advised by 
A. T. Giauque, who writes : " As the average farmer 
is engaged with about all the field crops he can handle, 
one-half acre is considered sufficient, one-half of which 
is devoted to garden vegetables for family use, the 
other half to shrubbery or small fruits. If, however, 
it is desired to raise all the sweet corn for table use, 
early potatoes, melons and cucumbers within the garden 
enclosed, then I would say one acre is none too much. 
My garden has been enlarged to one-half acre to pro- 
vide room for the shrubbery awarded in the late garden 
contest, and has two by twenty rods devoted to garden 
vegetables proper, one by twenty rods planted to 



266 PRIZE GARDENING 

strawberries, the remaining rod of width being divided 
to blackberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries, 
with young peach trees set out next the fence on the 
north side twenty rods in length, grapevines along the 
south fence, with rhubarb, horse-radish and sage along 
one end fence. I should have stated that off this allot- 
ment to shrubbery that the end nearest the house is a 
block about a rod square allotted to flowers." 

Mrs. L. A. Ludwig advises from a dozen square 
rods to an acre for a family of five or six. C. P. 
Augur recommends not less than one-half acre for a 
family of from five to six persons. B. S. Higley thinks 
that if potatoes are relegated to field culture, one- 
eighth acre is sufficient for the garden. Mrs. W. D. 
Goss considers one hundred by forty feet a convenient 
size. R. J. Clark and others think at least one-fourth 
acre desirable if berries and fruit are to be included. 

Causes of Failure. — " Want of care" is the cause of 
failure mentioned by the greatest number of replies. 
The same idea is expressed by the terms "neglect," 
"poor cultivation," etc. C. P. Augur says: "Any gar- 
den will thrive to some extent if looked after with 
intelligent interest and tilled with cheerful persistence. 
Fertility is not nearly so necessary as faithful effort." 

Several replies emphasize the need of frequently 
stirring the soil. Others mention the need of general 
thoroughness. Says A. P. Edge: "Farmers too often 
start early in the season, but let it care for itself later 
and wonder why the drouth is so hard on their garden." 
L. E. Dimock mentions poor seed and lack of proper 
care in planting. C. E. Belden thinks gardeners try 
to do too much with insufficient help. "Farmers," 
writes W. P. Gray, "consider the garden but a small 
part of the farm, and bringing in no cash, and they 
put it down as a last consideration." 



A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 267 

"Disinclination for personal labor" is the way R. J. 
Clark sums up his reasons for poor gardens. "When 
I commenced to make a garden," writes P. H. Sher- 
idan, "I put everything in too close, and had to do too 
much hand work, and the vegetables were small, and 
I would get discouraged and think it was cheaper to 
buy them than to raise vegetables." 

Another common cause, according to John Tye, 
is that the garden is left entirely for the farmer's wife 
to look after, "and although farmers' wives on an aver- 
age make good gardeners and raise splendid vege- 
tables, the farmer himself fails to put up a suitable 
fence around the garden, and some morning when the 
good wife goes to the garden to pull some lettuce or 
radish for breakfast, she finds cows, hogs or sheep 
have been there before her, and have eaten or de- 
stroyed nearly all the vegetables." 

The main trouble, according to A. T. Giauque, 
arises from getting so much absorbed in the field work 
as to forget to cultivate it until the weeds have hidden 
beyond discovery all the delicate plants that are strug- 
gling for standing room, or from "planting doubtful 
seeds in uncertain rows, then turning the garden over 
to the women for tending, and to Providence for the 
fruits." 

Other reasons advanced are : "Lack of nitrogen in 
the soil," "want of manure," "loose planting of the seed 
and at improper depth," "inexperience," "lack of nat- 
ural liking for gardening." 

Fighting Insects. — Prize winners were requested to 
describe the most effective remedy for insects, accord- 
ing to their experience. Paris green received the most 
votes, its use being recommended for potato bugs in 
the majority of instances. Several preferred to com- 
bine bordeaux mixture with the green, thus destroying, 
or rather preventing, blights, etc. In using these two 



268 PRIZE GARDENING 

remedies together, they are commonly applied in liquid 
form. When green alone is used, several recommend 
applying it clear with a poison gun, others mix with 
plaster or flour. One contestant urges that paris 
green must be used with great caution in the family 
garden. Another recommends paris green solution in 
very fine spray for cucumber beetles. 

A few prefer london. purple to the green. C. P. 
Augur prefers as a general insect remedy an emulsion 
of quassia chip tea, soft soap and kerosene. For pota- 
toes and vines E. R. Flagg prefers Bug Death 
sprinkled on when vines are damp. Liquid manure is 
spoken of by B. S. Higley as a sovereign remedy for 
cucumber bugs. Others use for these and squash bugs 
air-slaked lime, coal ashes or dust, sprinkled on the 
vines when wet. C. E. Brookhart humorously recom- 
mends "two small wooden paddles ; get your bug on 
one, whack it with the other." 

Complains Mr. Sheridan of Colorado : "There is 
a little insect that eats the leaves of my radishes when 
they first come up. I dust them with paris green. 
There is also a kind of scale that looks like flakes of 
bran that destroys tomatoes. I spray with coal oil 
emulsion with satisfactory results, also spray canta- 
loupe vines with the same for a green louse that attacks 
them." 

A believer in prevention is Mrs. L. M. A. Hall, 
who says : "I am never troubled much with insects, as 
I burn all litter and garden rubbish early in the fall, 
thereby killing a great many eggs. On every trip to 
the garden I destroy every bug and tgg, and two large 
broods of chickens do the rest." 

One gardener uses for cabbage worms an appli- 
cation of water in which tar has been kept over night. 
G. W. Hoover finds kerosene emulsion effective; one 
quart oil to thirty gallons of water, applied every two 



A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 269 

weeks for cabbage lice and similar insects. Hellebore 
is usually preferred for currant worms, but some use 
paris green. Slug Shot is mentioned by several. A 
number speak of wood ashes for onion maggot and to 
sprinkle on young plants as a preventive. 

Worst Weeds. — Purslane is the weed of tenest men- 
tioned, and the only remedy offered is thorough culti- 
vation. A. P. Edge half seriously suggests that gar- 
deners encourage the use of the weed for greens. A 
close second in unpopularity is witch grass, also called 
couch grass, etc. When it becomes once established 
in a garden no remedy is considered effective except 
cultivation of a crop which requires frequent hoeing 
and occupies the ground the whole season. In a small 
garden it is practicable to root it out and carry it away, 
and this method is frequently recommended, using a 
harrow to loosen the roots and then raking them off 
the piece. All agree that persistent cultivation 
throughout the season will kill it. Several have tried 
spraying weeds with copper mixtures, but nobody 
appears to consider this method more economical than 
the common methods. 

Other weeds and remedies mentioned are: Wild 
lettuce, for which prevention is declared better than 
cure ; Canada thistle, to be dug, dried and burned ; knot 
grass, clean culture ; ground ivy, rooting out ; smart- 
weed, killed by frequent cultivation ; sorrel, driven out 
by clean culture and by liming the soil. 

The Best Six Implements mentioned are plow, cul- 
tivator, hoe, steel rake, harrow and seed drill; that is, 
the six above named were mentioned in the greatest 
number of replies. Here is C. P. Augur's list : Chilled 
steel reversible plow, smoothing harrow, seed drill, 
horse cultivator, spike-tooth cultivator and compressed 
air sprayer. Mrs. L. A. Ludwig prefers a spade, steel 
rake, ten-inch plow, whether to be drawn by one or 



A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 2JI 

more horses, hand cart, sprinkling can, combined seed 
drill and wheel hoe. "But better than all, a set of nim- 
ble fingers backed by a willing, honest heart and mind." 
The list of B. A. Higley comprises single wheel hoe, 
double wheel hoe, spade, shovel, hoe, rake. C. E. 
Brookhart of Tennessee recommends two-horse steel 
turning plow, horse hoe and cultivator, steel rake, com- 
mon hoe, pointed onion hoe, combined twelve-tooth 
cultivator and harrow. B. S. Rembaugh would choose 
seed sower/ double wheel hoe, twelve-tooth harrow and 
cultivator, Breed's weeder, Cyclone pulverizer, disk and 
spike harrow, and a first-class plow. 

Most Useful Vegetables. — The six vegetables re- 
ceiving most general approval for the family garden are 
given below, with the varieties of each most frequently 
mentioned : Beans : Bush Lima, Golden Wax and 
Black Wax. Peas : Nott's Excelsior, Little Gem and 
Gradus. Tomato : Livingston Perfection, Ponderosa, 
Dwarf Champion. Cabbage : Early Winningstadt and 
Sure Head. Corn : Country Gentleman and Ever- 
green. Onions : Yellow Danvers. 

"The choice of vegetables is a matter of taste," 
thinks A. P. Edge of New Jersey, but he mentions 
corn, peas, asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, 
string beans, lima beans, onions, celery and tgg plant, 
without naming varieties. 

For a southwestern list is quoted C. E. Brook- 
hart's choice of White Silver-skin onion, Long-stand- 
ing spinach, Nott's Excelsior pea, Burpee's Green Pod 
bean, Early Bassano beet, Ponderosa tomato Win- 
ningstadt cabbage, Early Summer Crookneck squash, 
Hollow Crown parsnip, Chartier radish. 

"I believe, if I should be limited to only ten varie- 
ties," remarks John Tye of Minnesota, "I would prefer 
onions, beets, carrots, peas, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, 
cucumbers, lettuce and radish, although turnips, celery 




o 
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O 

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DP 

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A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 273 

and a few early potatoes should be in every farmer's 
garden." 

In his superb Missouri garden, B. S. Rembaugh 
found this list desirable: Egyptian beet, Valentine 
beans, Nott's Excelsior peas, Chartier's radish, White 
Plum celery, Jersey Wakefield cabbage, Maule's Suc- 
cess tomato, White Spine cucumber, Country Gentle- 
man sweet corn, Early Ohio potato, Tip-top musk- 
melon. 

Southern gardeners will note the list of Mrs. J. W. 
Bryan of Georgia: Asparagus, Conover's Colossal; 
beans, Kentucky Wonder; cauliflower, Early Snow- 
ball; burr artichoke, Green Globe; celery, White 
Plume ; okra, White Velvet ; parsnip, Improved Guern- 
sey; green pea, American Wonder; salsify, Mammoth 
Sandwich ; tomato, Paragon. 

A state of Washington competitor, A. C. Butcher, 
advises Early Rose potato, Yellow Danvers onion, Rust 
Proof Golden Wax bean, Fordhook sweet corn, Sure 
Head cabbage, Bliss Everbearing pea, Hubbard squash, 
Hollow Crown parsnip, Denver Market lettuce and 
Purple-top Strap-leaf turnip. 

A good New England list comes from F. R. Trask 
of Massachusetts : Red Valentine, Goddard, Worces- 
ter Pole beans ; Clipper, Gradus, Pride of Market peas ; 
Corey, Crosby, Country Gentleman, Stowell corn; 
Puritan tomato, Hubbard squash, Columbia beet, 
Early Milan turnip, Victoria spinach, Hanson lettuce. 

This list is from New Jersey: Hanson lettuce, 
Early Turnip and Long Red radish, Eclipse beet, Ne 
Plus Ultra and Country Gentleman sweet corn, Win- 
ningstadt and Burpee's Sure Head cabbage, Little Gem, 
Gradus and Telephone peas, Flageolet Wax and Bur- 
pee's Dwarf Lima bean, Snowball cauliflower, Danvers 
onion. 



274 



PRIZE GARDENING 



A few winners mention a variety of vegetable or 
fruit which they consider the most promising. Among 
those mentioned are Ponderosa, Quarter Century, 
Success tomato, Gradus pea, Iceberg lettuce, Yellow 
Transparent apple, Black Jack squash, Self-blanching 
celery, Scipio bean, Kleckley Sweet and Santiago 




HOMESTEAD OF A NEW YORK STATE WINNER 



melons, the Idaho coffee pea, Bismarck apple, White 
blackberry, Rocky Ford muskmelon. "I can name 
hundreds that were promising before I tried them," 
observes one gardener, and the unwillingness of prom- 
inent winners to praise doubtful novelties is in refresh- 



A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 275 

ing contrast to the extravagant talk of interested 
seedsmen. 

Most Desirable Flowers. — Sweet peas lead in the 
replies, then come asters, pansies, pinks, dahlias and 
petunias. Nearly all replies mention sweet peas. R. 
J. Clark of Massachusetts prefers gladiolus, dahlia, 
perennial phlox, sweet pea, petunia, morning glory. 

"Roses in variety first, last and all the time," urges 
Mrs. L. A, Ludwig of Kansas, ''peonies, gladiolus, 
perennial phlox, sweet pea, pinks, pansies — but it is 
hard to stop when there are so many that are best." 
Mrs. L. M. A. Hall of Connecticut prefers roses, pinks, 
hollyhocks, petunias, verbenas, morning glory, gladio- 
lus, asters, phlox, sweet william. Mrs. Bale of New 
Jersey chooses sweet peas, nasturtiums, phlox, chrys- 
anthemums, roses, asters. B. S. Higley of Ohio, first 
regular prize winner, and an expert on floriculture, 
mentions asters, dahlias, gladioli, nicotina, stock (ten 
weeks) and sweet peas. 

Second Crops. — A contest garden making a rather 
poor showing all the first part of the season was fre- 
quently changed to a very profitable enterprise upon 
adding the value of the second crops. The big returns 
from some of the best gardens were to an important 
extent the result of making the land do double 
duty. Where the garden was irrigated, second crops 
were usually grown to especial advantage, being largely 
independent of the midsummer drouth. Celery after 
a great variety of early crops proved an effective money 
maker, and is most favorably mentioned in the replies. 
Next come cabbages and turnips, both profitable crops 
for market or stock. 

Writes Mrs. L. M. A. Hall : "After each crop is 
harvested, I sow turnips with rye. The best of the 
turnips are pulled, then the cows and hens have the 
rest. The rve roots keep the soil from washing in win- 



276 PRIZE GARDENING 

ter, and after a good growth in the spring it is plowed 
in." The above plan is hard to excel for a farm garden 
in the north. Many gardeners farther south speak of 
crimson clover to be sown in late summer and plowed 
under the next spring. Several find winter radishes 
the bestrpaying crop to follow early peas. A Massa- 
chusetts grower succeeds in getting a profitable crop 
of squashes after peas. Another succeeds with late 
sweet corn. Mr. Hoover of Colorado finds second 
crop spinach or dandelions profitable. 

Prize Bits of Experience. — To the request to state 
the most important bits of experience gained from the 
prize gardens, a large number mentioned the training 
gained by keeping an accurate account. Others valued 
most highly an increase in their ability to appreciate 
a good garden. Many spoke of the value of thorough- 
ness, which their work on the prize gardens had 
emphasized. "Painstaking attention to details and 
to keeping accounts" is the way Mrs. L. A. Ludwig 
sums it up. 

Declares C. P. Augur : "The most valuable infor- 
mation obtained was the knowledge of how valuable a 
garden was." "To be patient, work earnestly, fast and 
hard when the right time comes," was the lesson taught 
E. R. Flagg. B. S. Higley concluded that "a garden 
is more important as giving fresh and desirable vegeta- 
bles than as a source of profit." Asserts A. P. Edge : 
"I am now satisfied that the garden is the most valuable 
piece on the farm in dollars and cents." 

The value of good seed and thorough cultivation 
was strongly impressed upon L. E. Dimock. A great 
source of surprise to C. E. Brookhart was the large per 
cent of the daily fare of the family that can be obtained 
from a garden. It was noted by W. P. Gray that a 
surprisingly large amount of vegetables could be 



A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 277 

raised on a small plot by doing a little planning so as to 
get two crops from the same land. 

"No more should be planted," observes Mrs. L. M. 
A. Hall, "than one has room to allow to grow to its 
largest size of perfection, and time to cultivate prop- 
erly. It does not pay to grow an ill-fed, stunted, 
crowded, ill-cared-for plant, any more than it does such 
a child." Another contestant was taught that "how- 
ever well one may do, there is always somebody who 
can do better." B. S. Rembaugh brought away the 
idea that "it is wise to always do everything the very 
best I know how, regardless of circumstances." 

"We learned that the strongest plants only should 
be set, and the weaklings thrown away," says G. W. 
Hoover. Declares A. C. Abrams: "We have ever 
prided ourselves on having a good garden, and neigh- 
bors and friends have often acknowledged the fact that 
we were leaders in the van. But the garden contest 
proved its merits in a financial point of view, thereby 
stimulating us to a more thorough management of the 
whole thing in detail. Our experience has proven con- 
clusively, not only for a ten days' trial, but for a whole 
year, that vegetables and fruit for diet are much more 
healthful and palatable, say nothing about the econ- 
omy, than so much of the strong meat and the king's 
wine." 

"Perhaps the most important lesson learned from 
my experience in the prize garden contest," concludes 
W. K. Cole, "was the necessity for attention to details ; 
the small things that are so apt to be overlooked — often 
the difference between failure and loss. Success and 
profit depend upon these little things and immediate 
attention. The man or woman, boy or girl, who can 
and does do the right thing at the right time is an 
assured success." 



CHAPTER XIX 

PRIZE PICKINGS 

Garden Bookkeeping. — Some of the account books, 
while excellent as prize efforts, contain too much work 
for use every year. The best practical books are those 
which are simple, yet enable the gardener to know just 
what he is doing. There should be a place for each 
crop by itself as well as an account for the garden as a 
whole. All dates, costs and varieties should be re- 
corded, as well as all receipts. It is a convenience to 
have all crops worked out in acre terms. There should 
be plenty of room for jottings, a simple pen map or 
chart of the garden and an index to pages. Books 
consisting of detachable sheets allow spoiled sheets to 
be removed and permit also of the use of a typewriter. 
A page from an account of this kind is shown on Page 
279, reduced to one-third. It is from the book of H. B. 
McAfee of Missouri, a model piece of bookkeeping, 
ahhough for other reasons not a prize winner. Both 
in their accounts and in letters written since, very many 
contestants speak of the great value of a good garden 
account, as a guide for the following year. 

It is likewise of interest to note that although most 
of the contestants were practical farmers or their wives, 
the per cent of well-kept and systematic bookkeeping 
is quite a high one. The contest was not one of book- 
keeping, yet a large proportion of the best gardeners 
know thoroughly the art of keeping accounts in ship- 
shape manner. 

Working the Soil and Crops. — In planting and cul- 
tivating my garden, I have depended very largely on 



PRIZE PICKINGS 



279 



my single wheel hoe, cultivator, rake and plow. Such 
crops as peas, beans, etc., I plant in very quick time 
in the following way: After the ground has been spaded 
and raked smooth, I make a furrow with my plow, 
drop in my seed, run the plow back the other way on 
the ridge and my seed is nicelv covered. I then firm 



E e a a s 



S It U A R If . 






Cost 


Recei*pt3. 


6»io 


$11.47 


$32.62 


$21.16 



10.14 



19.31 



9.17 



C a c c a g e 



6.45 



20.75 



14.30 



lettuce 



2.85 



29.80 



16.95 



a i o a s 



11.47 



55.77 



44.30 



13.76 



13.40 



R a 3 I s b 



2.09 



12.92 



10.83 



S p i n a g e 



'8.53 



15.10 



6.57 



•I a t e s fISLD 1) 5.75 

" 2) 4.98 



12.49 
39.76 



C.74- 
34.78 



T q r o i p s 



5.23_ 

total 5482.72 



15.48 
267.40 



A CONVENIENT GARDEN SUMMARY 



10.25 
$175.40 



the earth down with a hand hoe and my feet. I could 
save time here if I had a roller. I can plant in this way 
in one-third the time it takes me with hand tools, and 
do better work, too. In cultivating and weeding I 
depend entirely on my wheel hoe, and know, by actual 
test, that I can do four times the work in an hour that 



280 PRIZE GARDENING 

I can do with old-fashioned methods. One does not 
have to stoop at all, but can stand erect, while using 
these tools. 

After every rain I went over the whole garden 
with the wheel hoe, and two or three days later with 
the cultivator or rake, so as to keep the top of the 
ground loose. During the dry weather I went over 
the garden about once a week. I found I could easily 
cover my whole garden in about two hours, and by 
doing it as often as I did never had any weeds of any 
size to contend with. 

Visitors almost always commented on this lack of 
weeds, and thought I must have spent lots of time 
weeding, while I did not consider that I had done any 
weeding at all. I was simply keeping the ground in 
proper condition to retain moisture, and in doing so 
really spent very little time. As all the work in this 
garden was done by myself in my spare time, the 
ability to do a good deal of work in a short time is 
quite important, and the wheel hoe has proved invalu- 
able as a time saver in the two years that I have used 
it. — [Dr. W. Y. Fox, Massachusetts. 

Take time to thoroughly prepare the ground 
before planting, so that it will be well pulverized, free 
from stone or rubbish that can clog the sower or 
weeder. Begin cultivation early and cultivate often. 
If this is done with the improved tools, but very little 
hand work will be necessary. Have a supply of cab- 
bage, cauliflower and celery plants on hand, so that if 
any crop fails the land will not lie idle. Keep tools 
bright and sharp. Do not plant too thick, but give 
plants room to grow. Plan to have a succession of 
fruit and vegetables and work your plan. — [Andrew 
Kingsbury, Connecticut. 

I manure early, usually on the March snow, and 
freely. My rule is to cover the snow out of sight, then 



PRIZE PICKINGS 28l 

scatter on a load or two more to fill possible bare spots. 
I plow the first day 1 find the ground thawed, and plow 
deep, running twice over each furrow, the second time 
in the bottom of the first furrow. I plant everything 
a little earlier than the neighbors think safe, and replant 
if killed by frost. The first day I can see the rows I 
begin hoeing and weeding, and keep it up until haying 
calls for all my time. I endeavor to walk over the 
garden so as to see everything in it every day, until the 
plants are well started and can take care of themselves. 
— [A. P. Hitchcock, New York. 

In planting my garden, I put everything in rows 
far enough apart to admit of the horse cultivator; the 
rows all run the long way of the garden. As soon as 
any variety was planted, I at once marked it with a 
stake bearing the name of the variety and date of 
planting, using painted plant labels tacked to pine 
stakes. The writing was done with lead pencil and 
remained perfectly legible for months. The planting 
of all small seeds was done with a combined hill and 
drill seeder and cultivator. This same implement with 
hoes substituted for the seed drilling parts was used 
for cultivating next to the rows when plants first 
appeared. 

The soil can hardly be made too rich for a suc- 
cessful garden. I want to keep my plants on the jump 
from the time they first appear until the crop is ready 
to gather. Good seeds and a rich soil, kept free from 
weeds and mellow by frequent workings, are conditions 
which render a good garden a certainty if blessed with 
seasonable weather and rainfall. — [E. G. Packard, 
Delaware. 

I never allow any weeds or rubbish in my garden, 
to harbor mice or vermin, but keep it well cultivated 
and clean, and I think that is the way to success, not 
only in the garden but on the farm. I always manure 



282 PRIZE GARDENING 

and plow my garden in the fall. I think it is much 
better here, as one is apt to plow it when it is too wet 
if left until spring, and this makes it bake hard and 
work up lumpy all summer. We can plant vegetables 
quite a little earlier, too, and this alone is a sufficient 
reason for plowing it in the fall. — [John Tye, 
Minnesota. 

I have gardened fifteen years, but never had a 
garden so good as the one I had this year. By putting 
in the seed with a drill, I got all the seed in the ground 
and covered properly; every row straight and just as I 
wanted it. I can cultivate with a wheel hoe just as 
fast as I can walk over the ground. — [Mrs. Lizzie 
Snyder, Oklahoma. 

I make a point of going over it with either hoe or 
rake after every shower, otherwise it forms a crust and 
dries fast. July 22 it is absolutely free from weeds, I 
believe not one on the plot. Perhaps it would be better 
if there were more, then I should have to hoe it oftener. 
— [W. S. Newcomb, Vermont. 

My garden has been the freest of weeds of any field 
I ever cultivated in the twenty-five years I have farmed 
it here, proving to my mind that our weed seeds are 
grown and sown every year. To test this point still 
further, on September 9 I took a basket, went in and 
pulled up every weed and bit of grass I could find and 
carried them outside the field. I put in five hours and 
was surprised to find so many varieties in such a small 
bulk of weeds. I noted the name of every one I knew 
and found thirty-four varieties. Who can tell us how 
many kinds of weeds can be counted on an ordinary 
farm? — [W. D. Hinds, Massachusetts. 

In summing up I would say, and urge the im- 
portance of it, keep the garden free from weeds. Do 
not try to do too much. The greatest mistake I have 
made in my gardening has been in trying to do too 



PRIZE PICKINGS 283 

much. Had I planted less and tended it better, my 
success would have been greater. A small garden 
well tilled is far better than a large one overgrown with 
weeds. My fruit and vegetable garden has been kept 
clean, but the onion and beet patch were badly 
neglected. — [N. C. Kneeland, Minnesota. 

Using the W heel Implements. — The value of these 
new garden implements, the improved wheel hoes, 
drills, markers, coverers, cultivators, etc., was empha- 
sized throughout the accounts, particularly by those 
who tried them for the first time, and the conclusion is 
evident that a garden without good wheel implements 
cannot begin to compete in the economy of operation 
with one properly equipped. Only a few are quoted 
from scores of opinions to this effect: 

The Anti-clog weeder does splendid work, kills 
nearly all weeds and leaves the soil fine and in excellent 
condition to retain moisture. — [A. L. Coffin, Maine. 

Lacking a wheel hand hoeing machine, I put the 
broad sweeps on my horse hoe and tried the experi- 
ment of pushing it by hand, while the plants were 
small. With judicious setting of the wheel and patience 
in learning the proper way to hold the handles, I found 
I could clean out the weeds between the rows two feet 
apart or less to within an inch of the plants, do it as 
easily as with a hoe, and about seven times as fast. I 
don't suppose it was so handy as a special garden tool, 
but it worked. — [A. P. Hitchcock, New York. 

It's only fun to garden with the wheel garden 
tools. No more backaches and bad tempers. — [Mrs. 
Hattie Ferguson, Maine. 

If the garden is properly laid out and planned, 
little hand work is required. I lay out the rows far 
enough apart to work a horse cultivator between them, 
using a twelve-tooth cultivator. I can run it so close 
to the rows that but little hoeing is needed. Of course 



PRIZE PICKINGS 285 

everything has to be thinned out later in the season, 
and the weeds have to be cut out or pulled where you 
cannot run the cultivator. — [C. L. Russell, Vermont. 

I think the wheel hoe alone a more serviceable tool 
in the garden than the combined drill and hoe, in that 
the wheels are larger and the connecting arm higher. 
The boys are sure they can do more work with it and 
do it easier. — [Charles Prerson Augur, Connecticut. 

We first run the double wheel hoe, allowing the 
wheels to straddle the row, thus taking out all the 
weeds in the row between the rows and leaving only 
about two inches in the row, which we finish by hand. 
— [E. Elton, Nebraska. 

I believe the crop would have been almost a total 
failure, like some of our neighbors', had we not used 
a weeder, which stirred the surface of the soil, forming 
a mulch and arresting evaporation and conserving 
moisture for the plants. We also owe much to this 
valuable tool in most all parts of the garden. I con- 
sider the wheel hoe to a hand hoe what the 
mowing machine is to a scythe. — [L. E. Burnham, 
Massachusetts. 

My time spent in work must have been far more 
were it not for the wheel hoe used before the weeds 
had a chance to start. — [Mrs. L. M. A. Hall, 
Connecticut. 

I used an old gate to drag over the top of potato 
rows as the potatoes were coming up. It killed the 
weeds without much harm to the potatoes. — [H. E. 
Hale, New Jersey. 

Garden Conveniences. — I use a homemade marker 
when I want to sow only a few seeds or, to set out 
plants. It is made from one and one-half by three-inch 
stuff, four feet long. In this a pole from the woods is 
firmly fixed for a handle by boring a one and one-half- 
inch hole at the center through the scantling. The end 



286 



PRIZE GARDENING 



of the pole is sharpened enough to go through the hole 
and then wedged behind to keep it from drawing out. 
It is also braced with a piece of lath from each end of 
the scantling. Pieces of lath one foot long are sharp- 
ened and nailed firmly to the back of the scantling, so 




that one side makes drills one foot apart and the other 
side sixteen inches. — [W. H. Pillow, New York. 

Protection from Cutworms. — Fold old newspapers 
and cut into sheets, say nine by twelve inches. Paint 
with cheap, quick-drying black paint or waterproof 
varnish. Sticky paper covered with rosin and sweet 
oil will answer for one season. Cut the sheets from 
edge to center. The plant being set, slip a paper 




around it and place a clod or stone on the lapped edges 
of the slit near the plant and otherwise secure it against 
winds. This will flare the edges, cast water to the 
center, let air under to prevent mold and yet is dark 
and retains moisture. The grub prefers the ground on 



PRIZE PICKINGS 



287 



which to travel and will not attempt to crawl onto the 
paper. The papers if properly cared for will last for 
a number of years, and can be safely taken away from 
the plant in a week or ten days. — [Dr. M. W. Strealy, 
Pennsylvania. 

Most vegetable growers and also those who raise 
flowers are often greatly annoyed by the cutworm at 
transplanting time. An entire garden set with young 
plants may be practically devastated in a few nights 
by this worm. Being a hidden enemy, it is all the 
more difficult to control. A Minnesota gardener writes : 




I have found the device shown at a in the illustra- 
tion very successful in keeping cutworms from injuring 
my garden. The pest cuts off the young plants just 
above the ground during the night. To prevent this, 
take any kind of paper, preferably a stiff wrapping 
paper used at grocery stores, cut a strip about three 
inches wide and as long as is required to wrap two or 
three times around the stem of the plant, leaving 
enough space for development. Make the hole in the 
ground, put in the plant and then enough soil to cover 
the fibrous roots. Wrap the paper around the stem 
and fill in with soil both inside and out so that one- 
half the paper will be below the surface and half above, 



288 PRIZE GARDENING 

as shown in the illustration. The plant will then not 
be injured by the cutworm. I have treated cabbage 
and tomato plants in this way and have not lost one. 
I do not know how successful this would be in the 
market garden, but in my own private plot it has 
worked to perfection. 

I have been informed that by planting a few castor 
beans here and there in the garden the cutworms will 
be destroyed. A lady friend planted a few of these 
on the south side of her pansy bed as a protection from 
the sun, and she found that she had accomplished more 
than she had intended, for in the morning when she 
went to look at her flowers she found numbers of cut- 
worms dead on the top of the ground. It is thought 
that the worms eat the roots of the castor bean and find 
them fatal. The great objection to this plan is that 



— // - 



the bean grows so rank and casts so much shade that 
it is injurious to other plants. 

The Little Point Hoe is an implement made espe- 
cially for us women to use by my uncle, who took a 
common hoe which had one side of the blade broken 
off, and cut the other side off, leaving a blade about 
two inches wide. This has been worn by constant use 
till only the midrib of the hoe is left, which is worn to 
a point. In the hands of an energetic woman it is a 
most efficient tool for destroying weeds, loosening soil 
and working close to any plant desired. — [Una 
Eugenie Knight, New York. 

A Handy Tool. — The cut above shows a weeder 
made from inch hoop iron, described by R. J. Clark of 
Massachusetts, who has a pair of them that he has used 



PRIZE PICKINGS 289 

several seasons. Use one in each hand. They are 
cheap and effective. 

A Long-handled Wccdcr. — I have used a long- 
handled, diamond-shaped weeder in my work in the 
garden. The handle is about three and one-half feet 
long, or long enough so that I can stand upright and 
use the weeder, which I find very satisfactory for the 
work given over to it. The weeder part is made 
diamond-shaped out of a piece of thin steel, and firmly 
fixed to the handle. It is the best hand weeder I ever 
used. This is the testimony of John Costello of Coos 
county, New Hampshire, who has had much practical 
experience in garden work. 

Markers. — I mark rows either sixteen, twenty- 
four or thirty-six inches apart. For the latter class 
the corn marker serves; for the others I simply nail 
three or four small stovewood sticks on a piece of old 
scantling, rounding the marking ends a bit, and two 
bean poles nailed to the top make thills to draw it by. 
It takes ten minutes to make one, and I find it simpler 
to make a new one each year, use it and knock it to 
pieces, than to preserve it. 

Lime Sifter. — To sprinkle air-slaked lime on vines, 
etc., I put a peck or so in a coarse burlap bran sack. 
Two or three jerks over a hill covers it with the fine 
dust. — [A. P. Hitchcock, New York. 

A Roller Remodeled. — I had a hand roller, or in 
other words a man-killer, twenty inches in diameter 
and thirty-six inches long. I came to the conclusion 
that if properly fitted up it would be better adapted to 
animal power than human. So out of some lumber I 
had, I made a frame and shafts combined. Sawed one 
of the two-by-fours in the center, making two pieces 
two by two, twelve feet long. The other two-by-four 
I sawed into four pieces. Three pieces 1 used for 
crossbars; the fourth piece of two-by-four I sawed in 



290 



PRIZE GARDENING 



the center, making two pieces eighteen inches long. 
Made journal boxes out of these and fastened them 
firmly to the lower side of shaft frame. The three 
two-by-four pieces I used for crossbars, cutting a 
tenon on the end of each an inch deep, two and three- 
fourths inches long; then I bored six three-eighths- 
inch holes through same pieces, also through shafts, 
bolting them firmly together. Then nailed short pieces 
across the shafts in diagonal position about a foot long, 
making them very rigid. The rod that ran through 
the center of rollers was too short for the shafts. Had 





STONE BOAT AND VINE SUPPORT 

a blacksmith weld three inches on the same. When this 
was done, connected shafts and rollers, which worked 
admirably. Fixed a seat on same and then went to 
work. — [B. S. Rembaugh, Missouri. 

Stone Boat and Vine Support. — A New York state 
gardener sends drawing of a stone boat, which proved 
handy when the land was to be cleared off after plow- 
ing and harrowing. It is as simple as possible, the 
runners being made of sticks with a natural bend. A 



PRIZE PICKINGS 29I 

sketch of a rough and ready support for vines comes 
from the same source. The stakes are from tree brush, 
to which is fastened a single wire. 

Best Time to Work the Garden. — Cultivating and 
hoeing in the early morning when the dew is on the 
earth is far preferable to doing it in the heat of the day. 
I arise at four o'clock and breakfast at six in the sum- 
mer season. In the meantime I devote from one-half to 
two hours in the garden, hoeing, weeding, cultivating 
and gathering cool, crisp radishes, lettuce, cucumbers, 
peas, beans, squash, beets, etc., for the morning and 
noontime meals. Vegetables gathered when the dew 
is on them are of the finest quality. Early to bed, early 
to rise, gives a good appetite for breakfast, and adds 
days to our lives. — [L. E. Dimock, Connecticut. 

Hand Weeder. — I have a patent device which 
makes the work a little harder and slower than without 
it. So I broke a foot off the point of an old scythe, 
bent two inches of the top at right angles, sideways, 
hammered the edge of the rest down, wrapped it in a 
rag for a handle, and found it very useful in some cases. 
But thumbs and fingers must do most of the fine work. 
— [A. P. Hitchcock, New York. 

Clean Digging. — We have found that for a small 
acreage, a fork is the most economical instrument with 
which to dig potatoes, because the plow or potato 
digger covers a great many which can never be found. 
Do not put potatoes in the cellar until seasoned. — [A. 
Brackett, Minnesota. 

The potatoes were dug by turning a light furrow 
from either side of the row, and then raking over the 
center with the potato hook. This method is used here 
more than any other. As yet no potato digger has 
been found that does its work satisfactorily. — [Charles 
P. Augur, Connecticut. 



292 



PRIZE GARDENING 



Scaring the Birds. — As the garden was at a little 
distance from the house, scarecrows became necessary 
when the corn began to appear above the surface of 
the ground. Those used were made from a potato 
stuck full of the wing and tail feathers removed from 
poultry strangled for market or home use. A stout 
string about three feet long was tied around the potato 
and it was then suspended from the end of a bean pole 
or fishing rod stuck in the ground among the corn. It 
takes less time to prepare one of these "potato birds" 
than to shoot a crow, and when suspended in the field 
they appear to serve an equally good purpose. — [E. R. 
Flagg, Massachusetts. 

Plant Boxes. — Gardening operations require a 
great number of boxes. These may be without top or 




bottom, to be used with mosquito netting as protectors 
for squash, melon and cucumber plants, or with bot- 
toms for use in starting plants early in the season. 
To make such boxes or protectors, by wholesale, follow 
the plan shown in the cut. Take four wide boards and 
nail them firmly together as shown. Then saw off the 
boxes as is also suggested. They are now in shape for 
protectors. If boxes are needed, nail on bottom 
boards.— [W. D. 

Tomato vines were allowed to climb an upright 
trellis of wire netting. They needed but little tying 
and yielded better than those on poles or tied to 
stakes or trailing on the ground. — [A. E. Lathrop, 
Massachusetts. 



PRIZE PICKINGS 293 

Making Plants Live) — If the season is a dry one, it 
is a good plan to insert near the newly-set plant an old 
fruit can with several small holes punched in the 
bottom, and keep it full of water. — W. McDermott, 
New York. 

Points on Potash. — Last season I did not know 
exactly how to use ashes, and proceeded to experiment 
with various garden crops on a sandy soil, clay bottom, 
southeast slope. On one strip I spread broadcast 
unleached hardwood ashes at the rate of about five 
pecks per square rod, or some two hundred bushels 
per acre, and on another strip half that amount. Above 
and below these strips I put none at all. In this field 
in rows north and south and crosswise the strips, I 
planted potatoes, sweet corn, sugar beets, watermelons, 
muskmelons, tomatoes and sunflowers. Each strip 
was treated in exactly the same way in every respect 
except for the ashes, which were put on early in May. 

The corn, potatoes and melons were all much 
better where the ashes were applied, but not much dif- 
ference was noted between results of the large and the 
small amounts. The sugar beets grew the same size 
on both strips of ashes, but where none was put on the 
beets were only half as large, although richer in sugar. 

With tomatoes best results were obtained on the 
strip where the smaller amount of ashes was applied. 
Too much was worse than none, as it caused an exces- 
sive growth of vine and a vast number of worthless 
small tomatoes. I should now use two pecks to the 
rod. The sunflowers did not show a clear enough dif- 
ference to report, but I think the ashes helped them. 
In another place I had a patch of onions and these were 
very much improved by one hundred bushels ashes per 
acre, the difference being at the rate of about three to 
two in favor of the ashes. 



294 PRIZE GARDENING 

Summing up, I found that nearly everything I 
tried the ashes on was benefited by the application, 
but that the smaller amount was as good and in some 
cases better than the larger. As ashes draw moisture 
and tend to bind the particles of sandy soil together, 
they serve to help resist drouth under good cultivation. 
— [R. M. Dunlap. 

In a large box I first placed two inches of leached 
wood ashes. Over this I spread a layer of wheat bran, 
packing it down with a maul. I continued until the 
box was full. The box was allowed to stand for two 
months, when the contents were stirred up and applied 
to a field. It proved as valuable a fertilizer as barn- 
yard manure or commercial fertilizer. It can be made 
at a cost of forty to fifty cents per one hundred pounds. 
It can be drilled in or applied by hand. For wheat it 
has no equal. — [W. A. Kimble. 

In my experience, all valley land or land subject 
to waste lacks potash. — [J. L., New York. 

Two teaspoonfuls potash to one and one-half 
gallons water will kill the pea aphis without injury 
to the plants. — [C. P. Augur, Connecticut. 

Special Remedies. — With my tomatoes there were 
some that seemed to be dying, and on examination I 
found a small mite or scale on the under side of the 
leaf that looked very much like a flake of bran. I 
pulled up the worst ones and carried them away to 
burn, then I sprayed the rest with coal oil emulsion, 
at a strength of one gallon of oil to forty-five gallons 
of water and one pound of Russian soap. It seemed 
to kill nearly all the scales. I had to turn the plants 
over so I could get at the under side of the leaves. — 
[P. H. Sheridan, Colorado. 

Here hangs my knapsack sprayer, which with me 
has entirely superseded my old hand and foot force 
pump sprayer. This little rubber bulb spray throws 



PRIZE PICKINGS 295 

the material eight or ten feet high, so that the tops of 
all my grapes and gooseberries are easily reached. 

With a whitewash brush we smeared all the 
grapevines from the ground to the outer ends of the 
stems with the blue vitriol solution, with enough lime 
in it to show quite white. We also did the trunks of 
all the young trees, clearing away the soil slightly and 
extending up beyond the first crotch. — [F. J. Bell, 
New Jersey. 

Poles and Brush. — I cut my bean poles when get- 
ting wood in the winter, and sharpen them, leaving 
them handy to the garden. I bring down my pea 
brush also on top of the wood, sharpen and trim them 
and put them in small heaps with a weight on them, 
so they will flatten out and be in shape to set better in 
the rows. Much time and hurry is saved by doing 
this work in winter and having everything ready when 
the plants require it. — [C. E. K., Connecticut. 

Experience has taught us that pinching back the 
vines causes them to bear twice the amount of melons. 
— [L. C. Wright, New York. 

Mistakes. — The season seems too short for brush 
lima beans. We shall not plant potatoes between rhu- 
barb rows, as they receive too much shade. We should 
have provided the tomatoes with a trellis. — [Miss Bar- 
bara Brown, Indiana. 

The Struggle That Wins. — This bit of biography 
by a New Hampshire prize winner, A. E. Ross, shows 
of what stuff successful contestants are made : "I 
remained at home till I was twenty-one and then went 
to work for one of my neighbors, and continued to 
work out until 1889. When in search of a place 
where I could get more money, I came to Somersworth 
and entered the Great Falls Manufacturing company. 
I went into the dress room, where I soon learned, and 
by steady habits I soon secured one of the best jobs 



296 



PRIZE GARDENING 



there, which paid ten dollars a week. About this 
time I married a lady who worked in the card room. 
It was our aim from the first to get us a home. We 
commenced by saving every cent that we could. When 




PICKING PEAS FOR DINNER 

we had one thousand dollars we went to Taunton, 
Massachusetts, and looked at several places, but saw 
nothing that we wanted. We came back and went to 
work. Soon we saw the advertisement of the place we 
now call home. We found it would take two thousand 



• PRIZE PICKINGS 297 

dollars to buy it. We paid one thousand dollars 
down and gave our notes for two hundred dollars a 
year, with the privilege of paying up as fast as we 
could. The mortgage was at the rate of five per cent. 
At the end of three and one-half years we had paid 
the balance, bought teams and furniture. Still we kept 
at work in the mill until we had enough to buy all the 
tools and do all the repairing necessary. My wife 
has worked in the shop until now and has quite a neat 
bank account to her name." 

Solid Comfort. — I consider my garden has been 
a paying investment because of the pleasure in caring 
for it and the luxury of vegetables on our table, even 
without any other profit. — [L. E. Burnham, Massa- 
chusetts. 

If enjoying anything is of any account, the gar- 
den has paid beyond expectation. It could be made 
more pleasurable another year by having greater 
variety of products. — [Charles Cooledge, New York. 

There are some things that do not pay so far as 
money goes, but which give returns that money cannot 
buy, and one of these things is the pleasure of seeing 
things grow and mature their fruit, and knowing that 
your work brought it to pass. — [R. L. Porter, 
Massachusetts. 

Our garden has been a source of pleasure as well 
as wonder to us and our friends, that so much could be 
grown on such a tiny little spot. A row of Caprice 
nasturtiums fifty feet long in their gorgeous beauty for 
a fence on one side, and a row of squash vines, 
trimmed back, with their wealth of fruit on the other, 
and the rows of cabbage and Brussels sprouts separated 
by rows of scarlet peppers and tomatoes, with the dark 
red foliage of the beets and the feathery carrots made 
a beautiful fall picture. We counted at one time fifteen 
distinct colorings and markings, from pale yellow to 



PRIZE PICKINGS 299 

the darkest crimson blossoms, on our nasturtium vines, 
while the foliage was a combination of light and dark, 
making the plants very attractive. Just the variety for 
the window box or for anyone who has little space. — 
[S. L. Parker, Massachusetts. 

If I had bought the produce at wholesale prices, 
the time spent to go after it would more than equal the 
time spent in my garden. — [G. V. Dewey, Tennessee. 

I place more value on the garden than the figures 
show. Vegetables should be on every farmer's table, 
fresh and sweet. — [C. E. Deets, Iowa. 

We have not been without flowers for our table 
and sitting room from July to November 1. They have 
been given to friends and used for church decoration. 
It adds to the pleasures of a garden to have also all 
small fruits suited to the climate, and herbs, pie plant 
and all vegetables. — [Marcia H. Howlett, Wisconsin. 

We aimed to keep as accurate account of time 
spent as possible, and have been surprised that the 
number of days of ten hours each have been so few. — 
[Miss Mary Gilman, New York. 

The Family Garden. — A good gardener and true 
lover of country life and work is not repaid in dollars 
and cents alone. Writes L. E. Dimock of Connecticut: 
Dry figures can never reveal the hopes, the fears, the 
pleasure and the trials, that make the family garden 
indispensable to the perfect enjoyment of farm life. 
I say our garden, because, while nearly all the labor in 
it was performed by myself, yet for the whole family 
the garden is always a place of absorbing interest. The 
madam likes to stroll there in the twilight hours; the 
married daughter, with a home and a garden of her 
own, delights in wandering through its green mazes 
frequently and make comparisons with the garden at 
her own home. The son, deep in the knotty problems 
of Coke or Blackstone, has visions of the home garden 



300 PRIZE GARDENING 

rise before him, and straightway he makes a pilgrimage 
to its cool shade and its sunny avenues, and forgets the 
law in eager comparison of varieties of lettuce, or in 
noting the swelling of incipient melons. The children 
love it from the burying of seed in the warm earth to 
the gathering of the harvest. Their eager feet are ever 
treading its pathways and their eager hands are ever 
ready to assist in its care. There are other partners. 
The birds and the bees are there, bless them. Even 
the chickens feel they are entitled to help. 

Garden work was recreating and was performed 
at odd moments, when resting from the regular routine 
of farm work. Who can have the sordidness to claim 
that the crisp, tender, toothsome dainties furnished for 
the home table, or sent as a present to a friend, can be 
adequately represented by a few pence set down in a 
dailv account? 




finis 



PRIZE WINNERS 



Lester C. Wright 
was born in Oswego, New York, December i, 1849. 
He attended the public schools of that city and the 
Oswego high school, and then studied law, intending to 
be admitted to the bar. When his hearing began to fail 
him he gave up law, and for the past twenty years had 




L. C. AND FRED P. WRIGHT 

been engaged in market gardening at Oswego Center, 
about three miles from Oswego City. Mr. Wright 
had the reputation of being one of the foremost 
gardeners in Oswego county. He was the originator of 
the Early Leader tomato, introduced some years ago. 
Many people from Oswego visited his garden each 
year, and it was always a pleasure with him to explain 
his plans and methods of culture. 



302 



PRIZE GARDENING 



His death, which occurred on June 4, 1900, was 
mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, 
as he was taken sick while at work in the garden and 
died after a short illness of six days. 

Fred P. Wright 

was born in Oswego, New York, in 1880, and has worked 
at market gardening for the past seven years. Under 
the able instruction of the senior member of the firm, 
L. C. Wright, he has become one of the leading young 
gardeners of this vicinity. During the past seasons of 
1900 and 1 90 1, he successfully carried on the market 
gardening business as before his father's death. 




MR. AND MRS. A. T. GIAUQUE 

A native of Ohio, Mr. Giauque has been twenty- 
seven years a resident of southeastern Iowa, and has 
been actively identified with affairs about him. He 
was twenty years a resident of Nebraska. For forty 
years he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and was a soldier for the Union during the 



PRIZE WINNERS 



303 



Civil war. He is in his fifty-eighth year, having been 
a farmer since he was sixteen years of age, when his 
father moved to a farm, leaving it mainly to the care of 
himself and a brother two years younger. Possessed 
of an exuberant enthusiasm, Mr. Giauque always 
enters heartily into any scheme for securing better 
methods and higher standards in the calling of his 
choice. Ambitious always to have a good garden, he 
has usually had one, when it has been possible in that 
dry climate. 

Brainard S. Higley 
was born on a farm in Windham, Portage county, 
Ohio, of New England ancestors, September 1, 1837, 




B. S. HIGLEY 



and has always resided in Ohio. Nearly his whole life 
has been passed in that part of Ohio known as the Con- 
necticut Western Reserve. Until he was twelve years 
of age he attended country schools — most of the time 
at one held in a log cabin. At the age of twelve his 
parents moved to a nearby village, where he prepared 



304 PRIZE GARDENING 

for college in a select school. In 1855 he entered West- 
ern Reserve College, from which he graduated in 1859 
with the third honor in his class. He studied law in 
Cleveland, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in July, 
i860. He was married to Miss Isabella R. Stevens 
(who still survives), January 1, 1861. 

Mr. Higley, born and reared on a farm, always 
took great interest in agriculture, and since marriage 
always had a garden. Part of his life his professional 
and business duties were so engrossing that he could 
give his garden little personal attention ; but the garden 
was invariably the most charming place for him when 
he could be in it. Beginning April, 1, 1898, he has de- 
voted his entire time to his lawns and garden, and a 
neater, better kept and more attractive garden will be 
hard to find anywhere. He keeps a close record of his 
doings and the results, whereby from year to year he 
can see and recall his mistakes, successes and the out- 
come of all his experiments and work. 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Ashes for the Garden 293 

Asparagus 35 

Atwood A. A., Sketch of 51 

Tomatoes of 218 

Avery Estella, Home Garden of. 125 

Bale Mrs. W. R, Diary of 128 

Bean Poles 295 

Beans 53, 96 

in Grand Prize Gardening ... 7 

Lima 106, 146 

Beginner, Methods of a 189 

Begonias 240 

Belding G. E., Profitable Gar- 
den of 101 

Bell, T. J., Methods of 93 

Berries, Marketing 119 

Birds, To Scare Away 292 

Blackberries, Care of 245 

Boarders, Vegetables for 263 

Bookkeeping, Garden 278 

Bordeaux Mixture for Potato 

Bugs 174 

Boxes for Plants 292 

Brickyard Gardening 193 

Brussels Sprouts 260 

Brickey W. T., Profits of 158 

Burnham L. E., Garden of 62 

Byington C. P., Expense Ac- 
count of 185 

Cabbage in Grand Prize Garden- 
ing 9 

Worms, Remedy for 268 

Cabbages 40, 175 

L. E. Dimock's 233 

Second Growth 233 

Calendar, A Garden . . .96, 105, 261 

A Gardener's 41 

of Garden Irrigation 158 

Calkins Mrs. H. R., Account of. 138 

Cauliflower 259 

Celery, Banking and Bleaching. 227 

Boarding Up 92 

Branching with Leaf Mold ...230 

Culture 138, 175, 181, 259 

Bed, A Novel 192 

in Cellar 232 

in the Northwest 228 

in Trenches 226 

Prize 257 

Chickens in Garden 177 

City Man's Garden 78 

Clover, Crimson, in the Garden 177 
Coal, The Best Heat 211 



PAGE 

Cold Frame, A Minnesota 210 

Care of 205, 206 

Preparing 206 

Cole W. K., Garden of 56 

Comfort from the Garden 297 

Contestants, Number of 2 

Corn Culture 57, 107, 232 

Early 96 

in Grand Prize Gardening ... 20 

Cucumber Culture 131, 225 

Bugs 235 

Diseases 209 

Experiments with 31 

Extra Early 225 

Forcing 208 

Watering 33 

Cultivating Garden 104 

Currants 245 

Currant Worms 269 

Crops, Best Second 275 

Cutworms 186 

Protection from 286 

Dahlias 241 

Denslow L. A. and E. S., Gar- 
den of 14 1 

Diary, A Woman's Garden 128 

Dibble Miss S. A., Sketch of.. 118 

Digging, Clean 291 

Dimock L. E., Methods of 64 

Dole Mrs. J. E., Calendar of... 123 
Earliness to Secure Vegetables. 258 
Eastman L. J., Expense Ac- 
count of 100 

Edge A. P., Expense Account of 90 

Irrigation Methods of 180 

Exhibition, Vegetables for 256 

Expense and Profits of Gardens 247 
Expenses of Grand Prize Gar- 
dening 14 

Experience, Prize 276 

Failure, Causes of 266 

Farm Garden Patch 77 

Feeding the Soil 112 

Fertilizer, Application of 95 

Cost of 249 

in Prize Gardening 14 

on Sod Land 112 

Soluble 173 

Use of .^ 86 

First Prize Gardening 83 

Fisher E. C, Diary of 136 

Five Acres Enough 27 



$o6 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Fiagg E. R., Fertilizer Garden 
of 103 

Flowers, Most Desirable 275 

Foot E. N., Principles of 1 1 1 

Expense Account of 112 

Forcing House, A Profitable ...211 

A Small 211 

Frazer John, Forcing House of.. 195 
Fruit and Vegetables of John 

Tye 74 

Fruit Trees in Garden 244 

Garden, Advantages of a 91 

A Busy Farmer's 60 

A Connecticut Valley 52 

A Good Family 115 

A Half- Acre 142 

A Home Farm 75 

A, in San Gabriel Valley ....159 

A Large 47 

A Late 113 

A Little Suburban 100 

A Luxuriant Home 73 

A Luxurious 48 

A Natural 76 

A Productive Southern 140 

A Quarter-Acre 100, 114 

A Small Farm 71 

A Suburban 93 

A Successful 136 

A Twenty- Acre 37 

Comparison of 247 

Conveniences 285 

Cost and Value of a 246 

Crops, Choosing 264 

Land Taxes on 248 

Mr. Hall's Fertilizer 114 

of a Hustler 69 

of Mrs. G. H. McCluer 74 

on Chemicals, A no 

One-Third Acre 62 

Patch, A City 101 

Produce, Value of 251 

Size of 265 

Small Market 250, 252 

The Family 299 

Vegetables, List of 80 

Work, Methods of 41 

Gardener, A Boy 150 

A Zealous 143 

Gardening, Benefits of 121 

for Elderly Women 117 

General and Special 251 

Grand Prize „ 5 

Instructions for 252, 255 

in Washington 194 

Practical 260 

Giauque A. T., Methods of .... 69 

Ginseng, Starting 237 

Grapes 35 

Bagging 91 

Gray W. P., Small Garden of . . 61 

Guild Amelia, Account of 134 

Hall Mrs. L. M. A., Profitable 

Garden of 131 

Hand Garden Roller 289 



PAGE 

Hauck J; B., Account of 81 

House Lot of 79 

Herbs, Garden 237 

High Feeding for Plants 191 

High Grade Gardening 63 

Higley B. S., Sketch of ....83, 303 
Hill C. L., Account of Garden 

of 46 

Hired Help 86 

Hitchcock, A. B., Profits of ... 75 

Hoe, A Novel 288 

Holton Edith, Methods of 71 

Hotbeds 80, 109, 197 

Making up 198 

Management of 200, 201 

Substitute for 31, 90 

Horticulturist, A Born 192 

Hunn's Forcing House 210 

Implements, Best Six 269 

\\ heel, Use of 283 

Indians, Selling Produce to ....190 
Insecticides, Use of ...95,105, 129 

Insects, Fighting 267 

Remedies for 80 

Interest Accounts 248 

Irrigation and Fertilizers .165, 173 

by Windmill 176 

Details of 161 

from a Well 165 

Garden 80, 126, 152 

Hose for 180 

in Mining Districts ..167 

in Mountain Sections 162 

on Three Acres 167 

Plant, A Cheap 1 78 

Preparation for 157, 172 

Process of 157 

System of 155 

Kinney F. L., Forcing Methods 

of 199 

Kirk Mrs. R., Income of 134 

Knife, Gardening with a 193 

Kohl-Rabi 106 

Labor, Cost of 249 

in Grand Prize Gardening. .5, 16 

Value of 36 

Lettuce, Growing 236 

Spring, Forcing 208 

Lord C. E., Success of 76 

Ludwig, Mrs. L. A., Story of... 127 

Lyman J. G., Profits of 114 

Manures, Cost of 249 

Spread on Snow 280 

Market Garden 289 

Small Garden 262 

Melon Crop, A Successful 223 

Garden, A 185 

Vines, Pinching 295 

Melons 144 

Good 223 

Mistakes, Garden 295 

Model Account, A 132 

Moles and Irrigation 172 

Money from a Minnesota Gar- 
den 45 



INDEX 



307. 



PAGE 

Morse J. E., Sketch of 10 

Muskmelons 186 

Novel Features 183 

Onions 38, 65 

Harvesting 218 

Maggot, Remedy for 269 

The Culture of 214 

Two Methods with 216 

Weeding 217 

Paris Green, Use of 268 

Parker S. L., Profit of 112 

Parsnips 235 

Pasture Land, Reclaiming 188 

Peas 54, 107, 258 

in Dry Weather 231 

Sweet 239 

Peppers . . .235 

Perseverance Under Difficulties 140 
Pillow W. H., Winnings of ...108 

Pit for Forcing 195 

Storing Vegetables 95 

Plants in Boxes 221 

Starting 129, 197, 293 

Planting, Wide Rows 281 

Pleasures of Gardening 299 

Poison, Receptacle for 95 

Porter R. L., Methods of 101 

Potash, Points on 293 

Potato Bugs, Poison for 214 

Potatoes, Culture of 34, 39, 57, 107 

as a Late Crop 213 

Early Planting of 214 

Field, The ...214 

for Seed 214 

in Grand Prize Gardening ... 14 

in New Jersey 212 

Prize 256 

Weeding 213 

Practical Success, A 56 

Prize Fertilizer Gardens 103 

Prize Winners, Sketches of 301 

Products, Surplus 189 

Profits, How to Secure 253. 

Profits of Small Market Gardens 250 

Pumpkins, Growing Large 167 

Queries of Grand Prize Garden- 
ing , 19 

Radishes 129 

and Melons 224 

Raspberries 40 

Care of 245 

Reclaiming a Waste 183 

Rembaugh B. S., Expense Ac- 
count of 2J 

Sketch of 25 

Remedies, Special 294 

Reports of States 3 

Reynolds J. B., Irrigation Meth- 
ods of 170 

Rhubarb in Grand Prize Garden- 
ing 9 



PAGB 

Roberts Oscar, Methods of ....145 
Rules 1 

Satisfy 260 

Seeds, Saving 191 

Starting 84, 120, 207 

Shade for Plants 182 

Sherman G. M., Experiments of 191 
Sketches of Prize Winners ....301 

Soil Culture 86 

Testing the 186 

Working the 273 

Solid Comfort 297 

Southern Vegetables 273 

Space, Saving 100 

Spinach, Winter 234 

Squashes, Culture of.. 102, 121, 225 
in Grand Prize Gardening. ... 9 

Strawberries 34, 39, 54 

Irrigation of 1 74 

Prize 73 

Struggle That Wins, The 295 

Summary, A Garden 279 

Third Crops 182 

Tomatoes 7, 28, 57, 88, 134, 218, 255 

Ashes for 293 

Culture, Southern 220 

Diseases of 209 

Forcing 208 

Frame, A Cheap 222 

Good 22 1 

Plants in Grand Prize Gar- 
dening 17 

Profits of _ 219 

Transplanting 86, 221 

Tools, Care of _ 89 

in Grand Prize Gardening .. 14 

List of 269 

Sharp 88 

Townsend G. J., Forcing Meth- 
ods of 204 

Trellis for Tomatoes 292 

Vegetables, Early 258 

for Exhibit 256 

for New England 275 

Neglected 259 

New . . . 274 

Varieties, Promising 274 

Waterlily, Culture of 242 

Weeder, A Hand 291 

A Long-Handle 289 

A Novel 288 

Weeds, Worst 269 

Wet Land, Reclaiming 188 

Widmer O. R., Methods of .... 60 

Wineberries 182 

Woodruff Prize Garden 55 

Work, Best Time to 291 

Wright L. C. and F. P., Sketch 

of 301 

Wright L G, Account of 27 

Yield of Vegetables 49 



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STANDARD B00K3. 



Gardening: for Profit. 

By Peter Henderson. The standard work on market and 
family gardening - . The successful experience of the author 
for more than thirty years, and his willingness to tell, 
as he does in this work, the secret of his success for 
the benefit of others, enables him to give most valuable 
information. The book is profusely illustrated. Cloth, 
12mo. $1.50 

Herbert's Hints to Horse Keepers. 

By the late Henry William Herbert (Fr£,nk Forester). 
This is one of the best and most popular works on the 
horse prepared in this country. A complete manual for 
horsemen, embracing: How to breed a horse; how to buy 
a horse; how to break a horse; how to use a horse; how 
to feed a horse; how to physic a horse (allopathy or ho- 
moeopathy): how to groom a horse; how to drive a horse; 
how to ride a horse, etc. Beautifully illustrated. Cloth, 
12mo. . . . * , $1.50 

Barn Plans and Outbuildings. 

Two hundred and fifty-seven illustrations. A most val- 
uable work, full of ideas, hints, suggestions, plans, etc., 
for the construction of barns and outbuildings, by prac- 
tical writers. Chanters are devoted to the economic 
erection and use of barns, grain barns, house barns, 
cattle barns, sheep barns, corn houses, smoke houses, 
ice houses, pig pens, granaries, etc. There are likewise 
chapters on bird houses, dog houses, tool sheds, ventila- 
tors, roofs and roofing, doors and fastenings, workshops, 
poultry houses, manure sheds, barnyards, root pits, etc, 
Cloth, 12mo $1.0C 

Cranberry Culture. 

By Joseph J. White. Contents: Natural history, history 
of cultivation, choice nf location, preparing the ground, 
planting the vin^s, management of meadows, flooding, 
enemies and difficulties overcome, picking, keeping, pro- 
fit and loss. Cloth, 12mo $1.08 

Ornamental Gardening for Americans. 

By Elias A. Long, landscape architect. A treatise on 
beautifying homes, rural districts and cemeteries. A 
plain and practical work with numerous illustrations aim 
instructions so plain that they may be readily followed. 
Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo $1.50 

Grape Culturist. 

By A. S. Fuller. This is one of the very best of works 
on the culture of the hardy grapes, with full directions 
for all departments of propagation, culture, etc., with 
150 excellent engravings, illustrating planting, training, 
grafting, etc. Cloth, 12mo. . . . . . . $1-50 



STAtfDAltB BOOKS. 

Feeds and Feeding:. 

By W. A. Henry. This handbook for students and stocK 
men constitutes a compendium of practical and useful 
knowledge on plant growth and animal nutrition, feed- 
ing stuffs, feeding animals and every detail pertaining 
to this important subject. It is thorough, accurate and 
reliable, and is the most valuable contribution to live 
stock literature in many years. All the latest and best 
information is cleai ly and systematically presented, mak- 
ing the work indispensable to every owner of live stock. 
658 pages, 8vo. Cloth. . $2.00 

Hunter and Trapper. 

By Halsey Thrasher, an old and experienced sportsman. 
The best modes of hunting and trapping are fully ex- 
plained, and foxes, deer, bears, etc., fall into his traps 
readily by following his directions. Cloth, 12mo. $ .50 

The Ice Crop. 

By Theron L. Hiles. How to harvest, ship and use ice. 
A complete, practical treatise for farmers, dairymen, ice 
dealers, produce shippers, meat packers, cold storers, 
and all interested in ice houses, cold storage, and the 
handling or use of ice in any way. Including many 
recipes for iced dishes and beverages. The book is 
illustrated by cuts of the tools and machinery used in 
cutting and storing ice, and the different -forms of ice 
houses and cold storage buildings. 122 pp., ill., 16mo. 
Cloth. . $1.00 

Practical Forestry. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. A treatise on the propagation, 
planting and cultivation, with descriptions and the botan- 
ical and popular names of all the indigenous trees of the 
United States, and notes on a large number of the most 
valuable exotic species $1.50 

Irrigation for the Farm, Garden and Orchard. 

By Henry Stewart. This work is offered to those Amer- 
i«an farmers and other cultivators of the soil who, from 
painful experience, can readily appreciate the losses which 
result from the scarcity of water at critical periods. 
Fully illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. '. .' . . $1.00 

Market Gardening and Farm Notes. 

By Burnett T,andreth. Experiences and observation for 
both North and South, of interest to the amateur gar- 
dener, trucker and farmer. A novel feature of the book 
is the calendar of farm and garden operations for each 
month of the year; the chapters on fertilizers, trans- 
planting, succession and rotation of crops, the packing, 
shipping and marketing of vegetables will be especially 
useful to market gardeners. Cloth, 12mo. . . $1.00 



STANDARD BOOKS. 



Tne Fruit Garden. 

By P. Barry. A standard work on fruit and fruit troes, 
the author having had over thirty years' practical expe~ 
rience at the head of one of the largest nurseries in 
this country. Invaluable to all fruit growers. Illustrated. 
Cloth, 12mo $1.50 

The Nut Culturist. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. A treatise on the propagation, 
planting and cultivation of nut-bearing trees and shrubs 
adapted to the climate of the United States, with the 
scientific and common names of the fruits known in 
commerce as edible or otherwise useful nuts. Intended 
to aid the farmer to increase his income without adding 
to his expenses or labor. 12mo. Cloth. . . $1.50 

American Grape Growing: and Wine Making. 

By George Husmann of California. New and enlarged 
edition. With contributions from well-known grape grow- 
ers, giving wide range of experience. The author of this 
book is a recognized authority on the subject. Cloth, 
12mo. $1.50 

Treat's Injurious Insects of the Farm and Garden. 

By Mrs. Mary Treat. An original investigator who has 
added much to our knowledge of both plants and insects, 
and those who are familiar with Darwin's works are 
aware that he gives her credit for important observa- 
tion and discoveries. New and enlarged edition. With 
an illustrated chapter on beneficial insects. Fully illus- 
trated. Cloth, 12mo $1.50 

The Dogs of Great Britain, America and Other Coun- 
tries. 

New, enlarged and revised edition. Their breeding, train- 
ing and management, in health and disease; comprising 
all the essential parts of the two standard works on 
dogs by "Stonehenge." It describes the best game and 
hunting grounds in America. Contains over one hundred 
beautiful engravings, embracing most noted dogs in both 
continents, making, together with chapters by American 
writers, the most complete dog book ever published. 
Cloth, 12mo $1.50 

Harris on the Pig. 

By Joseph Harris. New edition. Revised and enlarged 
by the author. The points of the various English and 
American breeds are thoroughly discussed, and the 
great advantage of using thoroughbred males clearly 
shown. The work is equally valuable to the farmer 
who keeps but few pigs, and to the breeder on an exten- 
sive scale. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. . . . $1.00 



STANDARD "BOOKS. 



Pear Culture for Profit. 

By P. T. Quinn, practical horticulturist. Teaching how 
to raise pears intelligently, and with the best results, 
how to find cut the character of the soil, the best meth- 
ods of preparing it, the best varieties to select under 
existing conditions, the best modes of planting, pruning, 
fertilizing, grafting, and utilizing the ground before the 
trees come into bearing, and, finally, of gathering and. 
packing for market. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. . $1.00 

he Secrets of Health, or How Not to Be Sick, and 
How to Get Well from Sickness. 

By S. H. Piatt, A. M., M. D., late member of the Con- 
necticut Eclectic Medical Society, the National Eclectic 
Medical Association, and honorary member of the Nation- 
al Bacteriological Society of America; our medical editor 
and author of "Talks With Our Doctor" and "Our Health 
Adviser" Nearly 600 pages. Profusely illustrated. An 
index of 20 pages, so that any topic may be instantly 
consulted. A new departure in medical knowledge for 
the people — the latest progress, secrets and practices of 
all schools of healing made available for the common 
people — health without medicine, nature without humbug, 
common sense without folly, science without fraud. 12mo. 
576 pp., 81 illustrations. Cloth $1.50 

Gardening for Young and Old. 

By Joseph Harris. A work intended to interest farmers' 
boys in farm gardening, which means a better and more 
profitable form of agriculture. The teachings are given 
in the familiar manner so well known in the author's 
"Walks and Talks on the Farm." Illustrated. Cloth, 
12mo $1.00 

Money in the Garden. 

By P. T. Quinn. The author gives in a plain, practical 
style, instructions on three distinct although closely con- 
nected branches of gardening— the kitchen garden, mar- 
ket garden and field culture, from successful practical 
experience for a term of years. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 
$1.00 

The Pruning Book. 

By B. H. Bailey. This is the first American work exclu- 
sively devoted to pruning. It differs from most other 
treatises on this subject in that the author takes particu- 
lar pains to explain the principles of each operation in 
every detail. Specific advice is given on the pruning of 
the various kinds of fruits and ornamental trees, shrubs 
and hedges. Considerable space is devoted to the pruning 
and training of grapevines, both American and foreign. 
Every part of the subject is made so clear and plain that 
it can be readily understood by even the merest beginner. 
Cloth, 8vo, 530 pages. Illustrated $1.58 



STANDARD BOOKS. 

The Dairyman's Manual. 

By Henry Stewart, author of "The Shepherd's Manual," 
"Irrigation," etc. A useful and practical work, by a 
writer who is well known as thoroughly familiar with 
the subject of which he writes. Cloth, 12mo. . $1.50 

Truck Farming at the South. 

By A. Oemler. A work giving the experience of a suc- 
cessful grower of vegetables or "garden truck" for north- 
ern markets. Essential to anyone who contemplates 
entering this profitable field of agriculture. Illustrated. 
Cloth, 12mo $1.00 

The Propagation of Plants. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. Illustrated with numerous engrav- 
ings. An eminently practical and useful work. Describ-. 
ing the process of hybridizing and crossing species and 
varieties, and also the many different modes by which 
cultivated plants may be propagated and multiplied. 
Cloth, 12mo $1.50 

Gardening for Pleasure. 

By Peter Henderson. A guide to the amateur in the 
fruit, vegetable and flower garden, with full descriptions 
for the greenhouse, conservatory and window garden. 
It meets the wants of all classes in country, city and 
village, who keep a garden for their own enjoyment 
rather than for the sale of products. Finely illustrated. 
Cloth, 12mo $1.50 

The Window Flower Garden. 

By Julius J. Heinrich. The author is a practical florist, 
and this enterprising volume embodies his personal expe- 
rience in window gardening during a long period. New 
and enlarged edition. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. . $ 50 

Diseases of Horses and Cattle. 

By Dr. D. Mcintosh. V. S., professor of veterinary science 
in the university of Illinois. Written expressly for the 
farmer, stockman and veterinary student. A new work 
on the treatment of animal diseases, according to the 
modern status of veterinary science, has become a neces- 
sity. Such an one is this volume of nearly 400 pages, 
written by one of the most eminent veterinarians of our 
country. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo $1.75 

Batty's Practical Taxidermy and Home Decoration. 

By Joseph H. Battv, taxidermist for the government 
surveys and many colleges and museums in the United 
States. An entirely new and complete as well as authen- 
tic work on taxidermy — giving in detail full directions 
for collecting and mounting animals, birds, reptiles, fish, 
insects, and general objects of natural history. 125 illus- 
trations. Cloth, 12mo $1.00 



«OV 18 19QI 



NOV 16 



1 COPY DEL. TO CAT. DIV. 
NOV. 17 1901 







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